The defining characteristic of blogs is that they are online, therefore public and accessible to people of all kinds from anywhere in the world. Though they share some characteristics with journals (chronological posting order, often filled with personal thoughts), it’s important to remember that they’re anything but private.

Online communication has allowed all kinds of voices to flourish and find their own space on the internet, including those usually suppressed or drowned out. This is good in many cases, but it can also shed light on undesirable groups and opinions that the world really doesn’t need to boost, such as hate groups. My own use of the internet has enabled me to find scenes and subcultures aligned to my interests (particularly in the art and culture space), but I’ve also witnessed some truly horrible things online. The overall effect is in my case a net positive, but for some people the internet can be a huge, unfriendly, frightening and unwelcoming place.

Today, social media websites are increasingly good at allowing users to control their privacy settings and decide who can see what they post, which is good in that it gives users control over their content, but it can also condition people to think they’re operating in a bubble away from the prying eyes of the world. It only takes one incident to shatter that illusion. The author Jon Ronson wrote a book about people whose careless posting on social media had a huge negative impact on their lives, called So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which does a great job of exploring the strange public-private dynamic of online spaces.

I’ve honed my online public persona for a number of years (on personal social media, on professional networks like LinkedIn, and on my own websites) and this blog is just another extension of it. I’m quite comfortable with the “voice” I’ve developed, though I’m sure that if someone Googled my name or trawled through my Facebook timeline they could find something I would consider embarrassing.