Friday, October 20, 2006

Modern Morals - as they relate to blogging

This week’s Modern Moral on page three of Wednesday’s Times magazine - times2 - looks at the dilemma ...
On “googling” the name of my daughter’s new boyfriend, we discovered his daily internet blog expressing his intimate feelings about my daughter and their relationship. It feels like snooping, but he must realise that there is a risk of our reading it. Is it wrong to read this, or to let on to him that we are aware of it?
Having pointed out that perhaps the boyfriend expects them to read it, Joe Joseph ends his response with the remark:
It surely can’t be unethical to read something published on a publicly accessible internet site. What should bother you is that your daughter is dating a man who thinks it normal to reveal on a blog intimate details of the relationship.
While some youngsters (and not-so-youngsters) won’t be aware that their every online utterance is increasingly traceable, there is an growing understanding that if you want to keep something provide, write it down. That’s the old fashioned writing with a pen, in a paper diary and keep it locked away.

Bloggers and podcasters like Jett Loe (who lives life “out there” on the net) and Jefferson Davis have all ended up deliberately keeping some details of their lives and relationships private. Salacious makes good reading, but sometimes people get burnt through being too open.

I guess it all depends on your individual circumstances and level of exhibitionism! But I'll be keeping Alan in Belfast the way it is for now.

And looking at the blog description up at the top of the page ...
Comment on cinema, books, technology, and the occasional rant about life.
... looks like if I add a review of The History Boys over the weekend, I'll have posted about all of these this week!

2 comments:

David Todd said...

'reveal on a blog intimate details of the relationship'
The blogger in question maybe deliberatly portrays a different character from what he portrays himself to be to his friends and family.
A percentage of teenage boys talking about 'intimate details of relationship'their in would normally if talking to their peers exagerate and boast about what they've supposedly got up to.So no doubt if they blog they'd do the same and the adult readers have more responsibility to take in what way they interprate the blog.

(i wish they'd a spellchecker on here for commenting)

Anonymous said...

Alan, I'm terribly sorry I missed this post, when you wrote it, but it is thought provoking. Wayne was right, it is agonizingly hard to keep a balance of what is private and public. Blogging has been an illuminating experience for me. I've learned to keep what is private...private. I'm afraid I learned the hard way, but like so many have uttered before me, you can only learn by making mistakes. :)

Thanks for the post Alan. I apologise for just getting around to commenting on it. :)