Bloganoia

I've spoken to more than a few people that are a little paranoid about blogging. It's a familiar story, and one that I've thought about myself on an occasion or two. The scenario is simple. You blog about how your boss is a moron, your boss Google's you and reads your blog, you get fired. It's an understandable fear. It doesn't even have to be that direct.

Let's say you love pot. You mention in a blog that you and a buddy were smoking a joint. Boss+Google=You get drug tested and fired.

Or, let's say you're an atheist/Satanist/Buddhist/Anything that isn't Southern Baptist. Your Dad/Uncle/Mom/whoever is crazy religious. You blog about how you can't stand Jerry Falwell, and how he's why you aren't Christian. Relative+Google=You written out of somebody's will.

Or, let's say your girl/boyfriend is being a bitch. You, in a moment of frustration, blog about how they are being a bitch. They read your blog and then dump you.

Or, let's say you're gay. Your family doesn't know. Your MySpace page says "Homosexual." Badabing, badaboom, family shitstorm.

Something just doesn't seem right about all of this. We're afraid that the world will find out who we are and will disapprove. We're determined to tell the world what we think it wants to hear. Does that actually get anyone ahead? Most of the successful people I've met have been anything but bootlickers. They speak their mind. They offer ideas. They are opinionated assholes, for the most part. They don't snivel and slink in the shadows and hope nobody disapproves of them.

Bloganoia is a symptom of a far greater fear. That fear is that if the world learns who we really are then we'll be cut from the herd. If certain people learn that we don't like/agree with them then they will be mad. I'd imagine it goes back to a childhood fear resembling, "If Mommy/Daddy learn that I think they are a Bitch/Asshole they won't love me anymore." It is so much bullshit.

Anyone so fickle as to dissolve a relationship based on something they read in a blog deserves to be surrounded by all the sycophantic yes-men they can find. Mature adults somehow learn to cope with unpleasant truths all the time. A good manager knows that his employees usually think he's an asshole, and yet somehow that knowledge doesn't cause him to fire everyone on the spot. Most grownups know that there are gay people, and people of other religions in the world. The mature, sane ones learn to deal with it. Only a nutjob expects everyone they meet to kowtow to their tastes.

There's a website called Twitter.com where people post little blurbs about what they're doing. The first one I read was by a guy named Travis, and went, "Home, watching news, smoking a bowl." GASP! What if (random asshole here) sees that?! They might get mad!

Yeah. They might.