Thursday, May 05, 2011

if no one is listening...

there's so much to say...and it's strangely quiet in the interwebs today, and i have to admit i find the notion that no one is listening or reading quite delicious and very freeing. the notion of an audience is a both a wonderful thing and a bit of a ball and chain. you can't help but censor yourself at times.

but what would you write about if no one was reading?

how you wish those people you grew up with would stop trying to connect with you on facebook? there's a reason you moved away.

or would you write about your ex- and why you wanted out?

or would you express your innermost fears?

would you expose your insecurities?

or would you brag?

or would you expose with a link those saccharine sweet fakers that you can't stand?

would you say that those pictures aren't in focus.

and those haikus are crap.

and that that poetry is 8th grade level at best?

would you say that you refuse to buy isreali products until they're nice to the palestianians?

would you say you think that if ships really don't want to be captured by pirates, they should stay out of the gulf of aden?

would you expose your worries about the polar ice caps melting?

or the next US presidential election?

what would you write if no one was listening. if only just to get it out of your system?

16 comments:

Maria-Thérèse ~ www.afiori.com said...

I would write exactly the way I do now (but possibly not as often) since I've found that I censor myself anyway ever since I started to keep a journal at age 5 :-o
Although I do spill out my personal stuff in the paper journal; my blog is something different.

will said...

Ah, great hypothetical! I have many folders of ready-to-go blog stuff ... that I will never post. Just can't pull the trigger on certain things.

I guess I came of age before the emphasis was on team play, low wall cubicles and "let's share".

Besides the nuns did a good job of hammering in the lessons about hubris and vanity ...

Meri said...

Well today I wrote about the glass ceiling and how women high in the American government still have to act and think like men to achieve and exercise power. But I'll think twice before posting original haiku or poetry........

Numinosity said...

A good question, I constantly and purposefully censor so much of what I write, I've reserved my other blog for more free flow and keeping my main blog for the business and creative connecting. I would reserve the deep down thoughts and critcisms for my brain space or handwritten rambling,though I have enough trouble making time for what I do write!
It's too easy to creative avalanches of reactions that I feel ill-prepared to withstand.
xoxo Kim

Vanessa said...

im trying to be honest with my self on my blog now, more of a diary so to speak. So im hoping to let out all the stuff i dont say in my public life on here :)

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

... so much I would like to write about ... but I didn't cover my tracks adequately when I started my blog ... and too many members of family and too many clients can read my blog ... ho hum ...

Oh ... and when I have stepped across the threshold and expressed myself about something in the blogosphere (haikus) I was thoroughly roasted by all and sundry ... (except you, dear julochka!). But roasting can be good - informative - about who are really friends and who aren't.

Donna said...

the exact same things I write about now! It's wonderful not to check 'stats' or allow followers. I write for me...as an antidote for my stressful job!
I have few filters...that's just how I roll!

Elise Ann Wormuth said...

You made me laugh -- I'd like to write about four or five of your suggestions, but yeah, I do censor myself.

Elizabeth said...

Just reading someone elses thoughts can be more than enough at times.

Kikit said...

I guess many bloggers embrace anonymity for freedom's sake. Sometimes I wish I didn't reveal my identity for spontaneity. But if I didn't, it would also make me an irresponsible, tactless whiner.

Sarah said...

I spent most of my life censoring myself because I was worried what others, especially my mother, would think. And then one day, a light switch went off, and I no longer censor myself. I am who I am, and will not hide anymore. And the good part is, people seem to like it :)

But it took a LONG 35 years to get there. And much soul searching.

Thanks for writing this post. It made me remember that writing like no one is reading (as Molly says) is very freeing.

Molly said...

Thanks VEG, and thanks Julie for the reminder. I try and stay true to that but ja, too many peeps I know personally are reading these days for me to really let it all hang out.. Maybe not such a bad thing! I think it's kind of okay to protect those you know from all your weirdness, it's when you start worrying what the unknown followers are thinking that you start compromising yourself - that's my take.

Indiri Wood said...

I censor a lot. Mostly because I've found through experience that I offend people with my truth (not necessarily to be confused with *the* truth as the two may have a fuzzy line sometimes). Or that there is something about my past they object to. Or ... you get the idea. And when it comes down to it, I do want (most) people to like me, or at least not dislike me anyway.

If no one was listening it would be fun to tell the unedited and completely truthful life story. The one that *no one* has ever heard... About the ex, the things that scare me for real that I don't admit, things I've done or do that would anger people. I'd probably admit the subjects that I should care about but don't or the things I shouldn't care about but do.

I've tried to write all those things a few times but knowing who is reading my blog, people that actually know me, I can't.

Now I am wondering what it is you started to write about because you want to but didn't? I'm wondering what you censored. :)

d smith kaich jones said...

i would tell the truth about my mother's hospital stay & death - the wrong drug she was given that led to her death, the shitty way we were treated by doctors & hospital staff. i would tell everyone who thinks i am only in grief about her that that ain't all of it. but i live in this town, and so do my brothers & their families, and my lawyer's assistant thinks there would be subtle repercussions re: our medical treatment if i tell the tale. she also says i would never find a lawyer to go after the malpractice - my mom was retired, so legally not a wage earner, so legally her life didn't count for much. i would scream that anger across the page.

Sammi said...

as i said at blog camp- i only write the happier stuff on my public blog because anyone can see it. employers can get to it. i write under a totally different alias on livejournal (which i've had for 6 years now) and totally write what is in my head. it's brilliant.

Lisa-Marie said...

I do refuse to buy israeli products.

I would write exactly as I do now. I writ, I think in a way that is a product of my upringing - I allow others their privacy, and I don't write anything about anyone that could come back and bite me on the arse - unless I am looking for a reaction.

Which occasionally I am...