A blog about blogs

An interesting discussion came up at work yesterday (oh by the way, this is a slight diversion from my travelling topic) about blogging. What makes people want to blog? Or more appropriately what makes some people hesitant to blog. I know I set up this blog as a means of communicating my jaunt across the globe, but if I'm being honest, that simply gave me a good reason to do something I've secretly wanted to do for a while.

Is it like keeping a diary? I don't know. I have tried and failed several times in my life to keep a diary, so there may be some question as to how long my commitment to this will last (it has been 2 weeks since my last post). This is a really public platform for personal thoughts, its on the www, anybody can see it. So why am I so comfortable with it?

Maybe there is some strange shift out there in the world of moral privacy that is allowing people like myself to think we can do this and remain private individuals (I'm pretty sure I will always think of myself as a private person). Or maybe I'm slightly deluded. Would I be offended if someone took an extract from my blog and sent it around the globe on an email forward? In all honesty I probably would...but do I have the right to be offended? I put myself here, there is no restriction on who can access this and I knew that when I signed up.

Some say, us designers and tech-folk all across the globe should be thinking about these types of quasi-ethical implications of the things we design. Maybe, but then again, if I'm not thinking about where my boundries are now that I am a blogger, can I be outraged or offended if someone takes it upon themselves to extend my reach? I don't have an answer. All I can truly say, is that people are dichotomous, we want to be out there and accessible, but just as long as you don't come too close or I don't embarass myself or my family, or I don't get sued for offending someone else or I'm not heckled for being boring, or I'm not forgotten in the dungeons of the www, or a million other 'or' statements that I think caveat my prescence here.

Deluded may just be the right word after all.