Blogger TMI
June 23, 2008 by John Hewitt
Article by Marie Ann Bailey
To overshare or not to overshare! That is the blogger’s question. Whether ’tis noble to suffer the slings and arrows from TMI . . .
The new buzz word is overshare, but a quick Google search will show that it’s just a new handle for TMI, or “too much information.” MySpace and Facebook members have been warned that prospective employers may troll their pages, uncovering indiscretions that could blacklist prospective job applicants. If you are a professional writer and hope to generate interest and income from your blog, take heed. Cautions against oversharing are not just for the under-thirty crowd: Us of the pre-internet generation can be seduced into sharing a bit more information than even our best friend might want to know.
Popular blogging website such as Blogger and Wordpress provide profiles or pages (e.g., “About Me”) where you can tell the world all about yourself, and then some. You can share your favorite books, movies, and music. You can offer your astrological sign, your marital status, your age, your occupations. I am surprised that you cannot yet offer your social security number, although I suppose you could put paste that somewhere on your blog if you really wanted to. You are encouraged to make yourself three-dimensional. You are seduced into thinking that anyone would want to know everything about you.
How much is too much? At what point does sharing tip over from the realm of “things you may talk about during a job interview” to “things that you should keep under lock and key and forever hidden from prying eyes”? Where and how do we set boundaries?
I may be guilty of sharing more on my blog profile than I would if I were in a job interview. Still, I try to follow these five precepts for my writing blog:
Do not post anything about your spouse, friends, or family, unless you have their permission.
Respect their privacy as you would want them to respect yours.
Do share your work history.
You can provide your resume as a downloaded file or link to your profile on a network such as LinkedIn. Remember: this blog is supposed to help you further your writing career.
Do not share your personal health information.
If you want to talk about your current health issues, then join an existing group. If you really want to have your own blog on this issue, go ahead and create one but keep it separate from your professional blog. Use a different persona and/or password-protect your blog. Protect yourself.
Do not deviate from the general purpose of your blog.
OK, if your blog is all about you, then I guess you can go ahead and share the sordid details of your life. But if you advertise your blog as being about writing, then keep it focused on writing. Don’t suddenly throw in a rant about how the neighbor’s dog keeps pooping in your yard (OK, that could be a very entertaining read, so then considered Precept # 5.)
Do write your posts in a word processor first and then post to your blog after you given it a good review.
Always ask yourself, is this how I want to be remembered? If this were my last post, would I want it to be about my latest bout of gout, or about how I use reading out loud to edit my fiction?
Remember, my fellow bloggers, do as I say, not as I do!
– ———————————-
Marie Ann Bailey
www.marieannbailey.com
www.1writeway.wordpress.com
Freelance Writing Organization – Intl
www.fwointl.com
Related links
- 5 Reasons I Love Blogging More than Freelancing (0.500)
- Blogging Changed My Life (0.500)
- Are You Determined Enough to be a Freelance Writer? (0.500)
- Why Writing Deadlines May Be (Almost) As Good As Money (0.500)
- A Career in Technical Writing: The beginning of a new series (0.500)
Contact John Hewitt
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Marie Ann,
I’m guilty of sharing a lot of personal information on my blog, but I don’t share information about other people without permission. Although I do write a lot about writing, my blog is not a business blog. I would be more focused if it were.
Thanks for this great reminder. Even on personal blogs, it’s wise not to write anything you wouldn’t want a prospective client or employer to know about you.
Thank you! This is excellent advice. It could be used for any writing piece. I’ve heard cases where personal journals (the last safe place to write) were supoenaed in divorce courts. You can never be sure of anything anymore.
Lillie and JoniB, thank you for your comments. The trigger for my post was the Emily Gould article that was printed in the Sunday New York Times some weeks ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25internet-t.html?partner=rssnyt). I still haven’t fully sorted out my feelings about the extent to which she overshared (and even the idea that she was paid to do so). Some of my favorite essay writers use personal disclosure as a way to draw in readers and also lay bare any biases they might have toward their subject. So part of me really doesn’t want to sanction oversharing in general. It all depends on the context, as you both demonstrate in your comments.
Lillie, I’ve perused your blog and I wouldn’t change a thing about it
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..Let a Newbie Stimulate Your Creativity
Marie Ann,
Thank you for the compliment on my blog.
Marie Ann, great post! And, I love your last line
I think it is extremely hard to know how people will react to the various things one posts. It depends so much on the reader’s background, culture, upbringing, etc. Even gender and age can influence how the reader perceives the commentary in the blog. Sometimes, it feels like (at least to me) walking through a minefield.
Morgans last blog post..Changes and Choices
Hi, Morgan, thank you for your comment. I agree that blogging can feel like walking through a minefield: even if we collect comments and can assess how traffic is routed to our blog, we still don’t know exactly who is reading us or who may have bounced off our blog because they read something they didn’t like. But you can’t please everyone, not even some of the time and, perhaps, you wouldn’t want to because then your writing would be pretty boring
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..Let a Newbie Stimulate Your Creativity
[...] guest blogger on the Writer’s Resource Center is … moi! Check it out by clicking here. My topic is oversharing AKA TMI (too much information). In my guest post, I lay out some of my [...]
< Laugh out loud hysterical.
No, definitely not the way one should want to be remembered.
I think people forget that once it’s in cyber, it’s there forever — and ever and ever and ever. Dear goodness, will there ever be privacy after Google. That has definitely curbed me from wanting to “overshare.”
Funny post!
Yuwanda Blacks last blog post..How I Increased My Ebook Sales by 166% in Just 30 Days!
Marie Ann, thank you for the posting as well as your response about what prompted your essay. I read the Gould essay some weeks ago and was trying to remember it as I read your article.
Good advice. I would think–I’m not well versed in blogging, IM’ing, and so on–it would apply even here in such forums. I also read a sort of counterpoint to this. In a NYT op-ed published today, which I suspect you’ve read, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” by Peter Lovenheim, the author talks about the interesting way he got to know his neighbors.
As you said, it’s all in the context of the writing. If you set yourself up as an expert on postpartum depression, let’s say, it definitely lends credence to your writing/blogging if you talk about how you yourself conquered it (or are still working on it), for just one example.
It’s important, too, to bear in mind what Yuwanda said (as well as what Marie Ann wrote) about once it’s on the Internet, it’s presumably there forever (or, well, as long as there are Homo sapiens, they read by looking at words on some sort of page or screen, they still have some way to access something like an Internet, and so on) and asking yourself if you really want your great-great-great someone knowing about your binge-drinking exploits (gleaned from your MySpace page accessed via some future version of the WayBack Machine).
As an editor, I know the helpfulness of having another editor read and suggest for my pieces. If you have that luxury, you can also have your best friend, husband, wife, mom, whomever, read the piece before you publish it to your blog and/or do what I do: revise even after it’s been posted.
Finally, ditto Morgan. It’s so difficult to know how anyone will interpret the writing, based on her religion, his race, and the list goes on into infinity. At best, sometimes all we can do is presume and assume, and we know what pitfalls go with the latter!
Leighs last blog post..The Music of Words and Other Matters
LOL, thanks for your comment, Yuwanda. Privacy after Google? I agree we kissed that goodbye a long time ago.
Leigh, I appreciate your thoughts on this subject. Regarding your comment about having someone read your posts before you send them off into cyberspace: in a former life as a grad student working on an NIH-funded grant, I agonized over an email that I wanted to send one of the principal investigators of the grant (who just happened to be one of my professors and Dean of my college). Another student and I wanted to write a paper on the study, and we wanted to be first authors, not shoved down to the end as usual. We carefully crafted the message to be as diplomatic as possible, we knew that all four principal investigators would be also be authors (whether they did anything or not), we just wanted to be first and second since we had the concept for the paper and planned to do all the work. We had other colleagues read the message before I finally hit “Send.”
Of course, you’ve probably guessed that the PI/professor/Dean still misunderstood our message and thought that we were asking to be sole authors, excluding her and the other PIs. She accused me of being presumptuous. Sigh. My colleague and I never bothered to write the paper. So, even when you vet your writing to the nth degree, there seems to be always someone who will misunderstand.
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..To overshare or not to overshare! That is the blogger’s question.
I agree with your article. I understand that personal blogging is almost like therapy for some people. If you’re using your real name, location, etc., then you’re putting yourself out there in the open. If you were chatting at a restaurant, would you share TMI about yourself? We’d probably be more careful about sharing too much. I think the same should apply for bloggers.
I saw that Emily Gould article. She made a choice to overshare and she had to deal with the consequences. Words have consequences whether it’s in real life or on the internet.
hanas last blog post..Summer Project
Hana, thank you for your comment. Sometimes I think our access to cyberspace came upon us too soon. We (the universal we) are still learning as we go. How many years has email been around, and yet we are still learning that email is a permanent document, even if you don’t print it out. Government email is considered public record, even if you (the lowly government worker) is just emailing a friend about where to go to lunch. I could take my blog down today, but I bet someone could still find it if they knew how. Paper shredders can’t protect us from what we release to cyberspace. We have 20th century sensabilities but we work with 21st century technology. We have a lot of catching up to do.
As for Emily Gould, I hope she does learn from her experiences, and not just consider them more fodder for her blogging. She is a good writer.
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..To overshare or not to overshare! That is the blogger’s question.
Marie Ann,
Wonderful tips for not taking our online information-sharing too far! It’s much too easy to share too much in today’s online environment. That’s just the nature of the internet–and of blogs, in particular. And, it’s so true that the things we’ve written online can sometimes come back to haunt us–particularly in the professional arena.
Thanks for these words of wisdom that can help us remember to refrain from revealing things online that we may later regret sharing.
Great piece!
Jeanne
Good additional point, Marie Ann. Sometimes, I have to tell myself to just “let it go.” Besides, if there is a deadline on something, that takes priority to me (and usually to the publisher); one can only do so much–and his or her best–with a limited amount of time. And, as you say, no amount of editing (or other functions) by committee will make or break the piece. This elaborate dance of letting go is often easier said than done if you’re a Type A personality, as I at least partially am!
Thanks again for the insights you’ve provided!
@Jeanne, thank you for your comment. The internet is built for speed, and it is easy to write, click send (or submit or publish) and then think about it later. It takes a lot of effort to pause, reread, edit, reread, pause, … although we have no problem doing that on paper. Working for a government agency has really sensitized me to how our electronic writing can come back to haunt.
@Leigh, yes, there’s only so much one can do to make a piece “perfect.” I find it difficult to “let go” whether I’m writing a story or an essay. I can always improve upon my writing, especially if I have the luxury of time to let it stew. But then how will I ever get published if I just keep reworking my stuff? That’s my incentive to let go
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..When to Call Yourself a Writer
[...] Blogger TMI. This is just silly — there’s no such thing as TMI. That’s what makes the blogosphere so great: if you don’t like what you’re reading, click somewhere else. [Poewar] [...]
It’s best to keep your personal and business stuff separate. Not only are there privacy concerns — but most importantly, you’ve got to protect the security of your family.
I don’t even post names of family, personal friends and such. You never know what someone is doing with that info!
@Blog-Her
The concept of TMI extends way beyond the blogosphere. For example, I’ve had bosses who would often tell me much too much about their personal lives, usually in my office, with the door close. Kind of hard to click my way out of that! I realize that for many people the blogosphere is one way where they feel comfortable telling all about of themselves, but there can be consequences … and that’s my point. Like Emily Gould, I think too many otherwise savvy bloggers make the mistake of thinking that “oversharing” (or tellling all, or TMI, whatever you want to call it) is harmless, when, in fact, it can cause a lot of grief depending on who and what you are blogging about. Thanks for adding to the discussion!
@FreelanceVenue
I know of another blog that is being used to keep family and friends updated about the long recovery of a young man from a serious motorcycle accident. I’m grateful for that blog since the young man is indirectly related to me and, if it were a secure blog, I never would have stumbled upon it. So, it’s complicated and each blogger has to make up his or her own mind about what to share and what not to share. Thanks for leaving a comment!
That’s my major contention against oversharing: it can be an invasion of another person’s privacy. At the same time, I’ve seen blogs that post pictures of the blogger’s children and family and friends, and I enjoy them. I enjoy being allowed into a slice of someone’s life. As a great-aunt, I can definitely understand wanting to share pictures of the most beautiful children in the world
Marie Ann Baileys last blog post..Using Writing to Mentor Students in an Online Course
I heard about employers checking myspace and facebook profiles. I don’t think people realize that these profiles are a public representation of who they are as a person. I think people publish a lot of inappropriate information on their myspace or facebook profile. I think there is a limit of how much information you should share online or in person.
@Therapy New York
I do flinch at some of what I see on social networking sites such as MySpace or FaceBook. For example, I recently stumbled across a former coworker’s page on MySpace and thought about inviting him to be my “friend” since I also have a MySpace account. I changed my mind the minute I saw his photo. I just didn’t want the photo of him tweaking the breast of a statue to be viewed on my page. I mean, I know he’s a really nice guy, but–! Now, whenever I think of him, that photo comes to mind. Good thing I don’t work around him any more … otherwise, I’d have a hard time keeping a straight face