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Who is the audience for your blog? For some, it’s purely strangers you’ve met online. Others are targeting friends and family specifically. Still others have a mix. Each of these have different challenges.
When you speak in the realm of personal opinion and you have primarily an audience that does not know you personally, it becomes rather strange when someone that you know actually starts reading and contributing to your blog.
When your target is friends and family and you find that someone you don’t know shows up, it’s a little strange because you wonder how much you should really share.
Those that do a mix have the trouble of sharing something without truly identifying them. And there’s everything in between.
The Internet has redefined privacy to mean “sharing what I want to share with whom I want to share.” The reason for this is because we’ve become a society that has no shame. College kids are sending each other photos of themselves drunk, unclothed, or partially clothed and they don’t see anything wrong with it– as long as it’s the right people see it.
You see, nothing is truly private on the Internet, and parents are getting in on the technology:
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Yeamans, who is a computer information systems major. “I love my parents, but there are some parts of my college experience that I want to keep to myself. I chose to go away to school so I could experience a little freedom.”
I don’t think it’s freedom that they necessarily want as much as they want the ability to do something they know that their parents won’t approve of without their parents’ knowledge.
Don’t get me wrong, I think helicopter parenting is wrong as well, but to make a big fuss because your father wants to be your “friend” on Facebook only makes me wonder why not. My first inclination is, “What do you have to hide?”
Hmmmm…lots of things, but that is not important. What’s important to remember is that things we wish to hide aren’t always bad things, but simply things that it would be more hassle than its worth to tell those who do not need to know. For example, my little brother was recently taken to the eye doctor because one of his eyes was acting strangely. My mother did not inform her mom or grandma of this and specifically asked those that knew not to tell either of them. She did this because if either of them knew, she would have been bombarded with advice on what was wrong with his eyes and how to fix them (My great grandmother her grandmother is an ex-nurse and tends to do this over every ailment the family gets). Now there was nothing bad to hide in this situation, it just made it easier for all involved if everyone was not informed of the situation.
@Loc: That’s a good reason not to tell– I’ll definitely give you that. But what’s the percentage here that have that reason? As a college student?
In my opinion, until a child is off and married (and especially if their parents are paying for their college) the parent has the right to know certain things about what’s going on at college. I’m definitely not for helicopter parenting– a college student should be able to register for their own courses, get a job and work out problems without calling mom and dad for help. But if all a kid is doing is partying, then it’s a good thing for the parents to know that.
What I am saying is that there are many times where the reason that a person wants privacy is because of something they are ashamed about. That’s why the advice for parents is not to let their children in the house have a computer in their room, or a television for that matter. As Christians it goes one step further. We’re supposed to be helping each other to grow in our Christian life– to help provide accountability.
So, trying to keep mom and dad out at least raises some questions. And though we can certainly find some good reasons that they might be kept out, the questions should be raised and maybe a heart to heart is required so that the communication and love can flow freely.