No-one I know in Real Life knows about this blog. I don’t want anyone to know about it, either. I suppose there are a select few, who I would be semi-OK with knowing, though.
I have a bunch of friends I met in Real Life from a VCE forum, and one who I met via LiveJournal. The people I met on a forum would be more likely to “understand” blogging, and many of them are the typical “Internet person”, who knows all the Internet memes and such. Some of these who I actually see quite often at uni, I’d be OK with.
Still, I don’t plan to tell anyone about this blog. I know I’d feel pretty self-conscious if I knew my friends were reading it, although when there’s “mutual blog-reading”, such as with the friend I met via LiveJournal, then that’s fine with me.
I am occasionally worried that someone I know offline will actually find this blog, but then I realise that’s a pretty ridiculous idea. The information on my “About” page is pretty much a dead giveaway to my real identity, but the chance of someone I know actually getting to that page is extremely slim. Other people in the blogosphere read my “About” page (I know because that page gets a hit when I get a referral from blogs I’ve posted a comment on, or forums where the majority of people have a blog). But people who come to the site via a search engine do not click the “About” link (presumably because my site is never what they’re actually looking for), so I figure people I know offline aren’t easily going to find out about this place. There was a time where I thought it would’ve been better if I was blogging under an alias, but I figure that won’t be necessary. Although it would still be cool.
That said, having a blog and not telling your partner (I don’t have one), seems a bit dishonest, so I’ll have to reconsider what I’ve said here, one day.
What I’m interested in knowing, is do you tell offline friends about your blog? If not, why not?
Years ago, I used to keep my online/offline life separate because back then, blogging amongst my high school acquaintances was -not- in — it was all the rage on the Internet, but you know how Real Life people come across these things eons later and think it’s the next best thing after sliced bread? Yea. But then eventually, people learnt about it, and I was fine until too many people in RL I saw everyday started reading it — like you said, there wasn’t the mutual blogging thing going on. So I moved, but then I find with university, I don’t *see* most of the people who read my blog often enough to make it awkward. And those I do see, are my best friends, so it’s okay.
Yet, I think it’s important to note that I don’t tell people about my blog, either in Real Life, or advertised on Facebook. You actually have to actively ’stalk’ me, to find out.
I don’t go out of my way to tell people that I have a blog. If it comes up in conversation somehow, I mention it. I have regretted it afterwards. I do link to my blog from my Facebook “Info” tab, but don’t mention it otherwise on there. Very few people, if anyone at all, bother to click over from there regularly. (Two people have read it at least once, and commented, but I don’t think they came back.)
Anyway, it doesn’t really bother me if real-life acquaintances read my blog. It’s not very often that I write about my life, and when I do, I am usually careful not to be mean about people (and I very rarely attach names). I used to write very differently, so I am familiar with the fear that someone would track down mean entries and read what I don’t want them to know I said publicly. But that was a long time ago, and now I know not to write such entries in the first place. Hence, no fear.
(I’m new to your blog
)
I’m highly uncomfortable at the thought of certain friends reading my blog, and just fine with other ones. There’s not much of a criteria that I sort them through, it’s completely random. I do link my blog from forums and such, and also facebook, so anyone could read it if they really wanted to.
My mother used to read my blog, but I asked her to stop once she brought up something I had written. Since then, I haven’t been able to get past my self censorship knowing that my mother could be/is reading it.
I used to not care about it but for the past year or two, I’ve kept the new address of my blog to myself.