my life with 3 Princesses

Privacy May 27, 2010

Why am I able to publicise each post on Twitter but  not on Facebook? (I have far less T friends than FB ones)

Why is it taking me so long to upload a picture of me in the gravatar?  What would this change?

Why am I ever so careful to ‘hide’ my princesses’ face when I photograph them for the blog?  I don’t use any of the hundreds of pictures we have of thembut only ones specifically taken.

Why does it still seem like I’m sharing my darkest secret when I ‘tell’ a friend or a relative the address of this blog?

These and other questions along the same lines have been bothering me for a while until one fine day I come across the photos of one of my favourite bloggers in her post The Gallery that she wrote in response to Tara’s prompts .  And today I finally found the time to write about it.

On flipping through the different photos of the different bloggers, I couldn’t help but feel like I was spying.  I could see them but they couldn’t see me (obviously).  So first step was to first ask myself why I still had not put my own picture somewhere on my blog…what difference could this possible make to anybody except that maybe anyone who stops by could put a face to the words.   So first decision in this regard taken – I’m putting my favourite picture up.

I know my blog reads like a diary. At times its about my feelings, at others my opinions, at others a mother’s reflections.  Mostly it is my thoughts shared with a few other mothers with whom I have shared this ‘secret’.  But this is not an email sent to my friends but a piece of me shared with the world. And what I write I’d be able to discuss easily with my friends whom I finger-twiddled long to tell. Still I hesitate and take my time.

The more I tinker with social networking sites (FB and Twitter) and now this dabbling in blogging, the more I get the impressions that we are not really aware of the implications the digital world could have on us.  I don’t want to infer that all implications will be negative… on the contrary.  I have, to date, only had what I’m going to call a positive eye opening experince, unlike what has happened to a new friend of mine (she is thinking of going private because of people who visit her blog to check her out and then act very unfriendly when they meet).  But then a couple of days ago all news networks took up the privacy settings on FB to task and dedicated many minutes and lines to explain the issues involved. Also recently, locally, a young man was prosecuted in court for his comments on a FB group. From all this I can only conclude that while many millions continue to log on, not everyone takes the time to look at the implicationsof their cyper actions. This of course leaves undiscussed but definately not forgotten issue of crime, be it stolen identities, child porn, viruses, etc.

That said, Ialso need to say that I believe in a responsible use of all inventions, internet and its’ facilities included and conclude that anything that I woundn’t say/do face to face is not to be written neither here nor elsewhere.

Do unto others as you would have then do unto you. Matthew 7:12

 The last issue is the princesses.  I love it when I read other mum blog and come across their children’s photos – they somehow give a context to the stories.  But I’m not ready to that myself.  Call me over protective, call me cyber stupid, call me what ever…. I simply can’t.  I only hope that in time, I will come to understand more how to use this medium better to feel comfortable enough to overcome this too.