Tommy Collison

One of the things that people seem shocked at when I talk to them about blogging is the sheer fact that I report so intimately on what’s happening on my life. It’s so public! they cry. They say the same about Twitter – but that’s usually more about every day things, like gastro-tweeting what I have for dinner some nights. Why would you be telling them what you had for dinner?, they exclaim. Yeah, you now know what I had for dinner that night, but that’s not hugely important information. It’s not like it’s my political views are on show

Oh wait, Facebook lets the cat out of the bag.

But just how personal is personal?

Okay, on the one hand, you know that I was at the zoo last Saturday, or that I’ll be at a wedding on Thursday – I’d have no problem saying something like that. Is there a problem with that? It’s not embarrassing for me, the zoo isn’t some.. I dunno, gentleman’s interest club (or if it is, I missed it) so it’s not like the zoo is something you wouldn’t want your wife to know about.

You might notice that I never really go into some details about school. Yes, I had double Business on Friday, but what’d did I do at break? I intentionally never talk about my friends and, no, that isn’t because I have none, which has been suggested, but merely because they mightn’t be as comfortable to be mentioned on the web, and that’s fine.

The secret to a good personal blog is knowing what’s personal, yet not too personal

People connect with personal blogs more than other blogs, so they don’t read them to find out what the sea forecast is for Sligo – they’re interested in the life of the author.

But, we know readers are hungry people whose quest for knowledge is rarely satisfied, so you have to find a balance.

I’m currently reading Without You by Anthony Rapp, an autobiography of an American stage actor. It carries the message that “some names and identifying characteristics have been changed”. See, that’s how to do it. You write something personal, but change it so that people who’d know the event are protected from identification. Now, I’m reading it 3 years after the book’s published, and often about 10 years since the events described therein actually happened. Is my reading experience tarnished by the guy being Frank instead of Kevin, or him having blonde hair instead of black? Not at all.

It’s when you start talking about real world relationships without putting some shroud of anonymity over it that things start to get sticky.

So, yes. I fully condone the changing of names to protect identities. In fact, I recommend the practice wholeheartedly.

Oh dear, you got another piece of personal info out of me!