Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Going Private

A few months ago I saw this news story on a local Salt Lake channel, about blogging. OK, first, the fact that there would BE a news story about blogging, is hilarious. But the content of this "newsworthy" story was even more ridiculous. It was all about the "hidden dangers" of blogging. Reeeally? Please tell...are there murderers and pedophiles spending their days lurking on the Internet, pouring over naive family blogs, just waiting for the right time to strike? Well, according to this news show- it COULD happen! Yeah, just like a meteor could rain down from the sky and kill us all in two seconds. To me, if you spend all of your time afraid that the sky is falling, you are never going to live your life. This anchorwoman went on someones blog and said that she saw pictures of the people's home, and their kids, and even found THEIR NAMES...Oh My Gosh- THEIR NAMES! And from that...well, it was just a matter of time before she Googled them and showed up on their doorstep! And then what?? Who cares? Are we that famous, or that terrified, that we have to be anonymous to anyone with whom we don't share a cul-de-sac? And so it was pretty anti-climatic. The anchorwoman confronts the unsuspecting blogger who feigns terror at the idea of someone being able to find her. I mean really, what would the criminal do?.. steal the stenciled saying off the family room wall? Or make off with the family pictures. Not worth living in fear over. This is a time where most people in the world are reaching out, trying to connect to others, build bridges of friendship, opening doors. And here we are, believing that we are that self-important, that we have stalkers who are just waiting to attack us via our blog. It seems a bit narcissistic. I mean, sure it probably HAS happened, just like people HAVE been struck by lightening. But are you going to run for cover every time it rains, for fear of being struck? It's just does not happen often enough to warrant fear or worry.

Now, upon saying this, I realize that I am invoking Murphy's Law, which means that some psycho will inevitably begin reading my blog and desire to break in to my home to A) steal our cat, or B) steal our Dora DVD collection. And to that, I have to warn you that A) We have a dog on almost every side of our property, two of whom bark at the slightest movement, and one who is honestly senile and MEAN. B) We just made the decision (not because of blog-stalker fear, but because of drunk-frat-boy-fear) that we are getting a home security system on all the windows and doors. The thing is SO cool, that it even has a motion sensor! And C) I will tell you right now that the neighbors down the road have a WAY better T.V., and the ones across the street have a killer sound system- so if you are going to risk 15-30 years in jail, do it for something decent. Oh, and if it's kids you are after- mine are micro chipped, so you'd be hunted down in ten seconds flat and shot dead.

And so, I am not going private...unless I am struck by lightening.

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Hello,
I'm a lurker and I wanted to say Hi.. So Hi.
I surfed on to your blog one weekend from Seriously So blessed maybe not sure.I am a Wife and Mum of two from sunny Australia and I loved this post... I hope you are not worried about lurkers because if they are anything like me.. we are all just happy to be reading about other Mums going through the same stuff as us. I loved your last post about you and your Hubby fighting... made me feel very normal:)
Well sorry for the long comment and thanks for sharing.
Elizabeth

Jared and Delia said...

I LOVE your writing and your honesty. I don't prefer to go private. I just try to leave out last names and such and don't really worry about the rest.

You are such a fun mom to go swimming and pretend to be a dolphin and stuff.

We have never had to worry about spending one and one time with our kids because it has always been Owen. Now that we have two I should really do that. Thanks for the reminder!

Danielle Hatch said...

i love this post! very astute observations about the "news" pedaling fear. i remember telling my mom to stop watching 20/20 in the 90s because all it did was freak her out about the supposed dangers lurking around every corner. finally as a side note i now want to start breaking into homes just to steal stenciled sayings off peoples walls, so watch out utah county :)

Ashley said...

Hey Elizabeth, I always welcome lurkers who are as nice as you! Nice to meet you.

Delia, i love YOUR writing. And you'll be great with two...it's still one-on-one with the ratio which is a lifesaver!

Danielle...thank you. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who sees the incredible value of wall stencils.

Anonymous said...

Just my two cents...my blog became private when some co-workers of mine a few years ago told me they found my blog. I just didn't feel that I needed people at work reading it.

Also, I believe there are other valid reasons for making a blog private. If I (or my spouse) were applying to school or applying for a new job, for example, would I really want an admissions committee or future employer to have access to a personal blog? Not really.

So, just thought I'd share some valid reasons, in my opinion, why some people may choose to "go private."