Blogging for Scrapbookers: Prompt Two

Photo taken by brockney52

Our second prompt is a bit of a cautionary tale of providing too much personal information, something I have been guilty of on occasion. Occasionally I forget that I'm not just speaking with my sisters and good girlfriends here on the blog, but it is open to public viewing. I appreciate the reminder.

I really enjoy blogs where the writer is authentic. In order to have an effective blog I believe you have to be authentic, honest and consistent voice. You can't be consistent unless you are authentic. Well, maybe you can be, but if that's the case, you are in the wrong business ... you should be going for that Oscar!

Where providing too much information comes into play is in our effort to be authentic, we post things, innocuous things that, added up, can cause trouble. For example, in the course of a few months you post things like: the front of your house which can be seen in the background of those cute photos you took of your kids at Hallowe'en, which also caught the number of your home. A post a couple of months ago when you had that street party where all the families on "First Avenue" got together. Then the upcoming trip to Disney when you're going away for a whole week in order to catch grandma's birthday on the 9th of the month. Then you come home and have nothing to come home to because someone, someone following your blog - I know, if you're like me you think there are family members and maybe a friend or two checking in - but there are others, always more, but one connected all of those dots and cleaned out your house. Or perhaps worse, stole your identity.

Often my posts act as prompts for my scrapbook pages, but I don't have to include all of the minute details - on either the blog or the scrapbook page. Rarely do I have "hidden journaling", I tend to be an "out there" kind of person. The truth, communication, encouragement can't bite you in the butt. Well, that's wrong, it has bitten ... hard, but I'd rather be bitten by something I've said than something I've said than something hidden away :)

I will though, always keep it at the back of my head that sometimes there is such a thing as too much information: the price of authenticity shouldn't be lack of privacy, or worse!