Too Much Information

My attorney reads my blog. He told me that he’s usually frightened when his clients blog, but he’s not concerned about mine. I was thinking about this when I read this article (hat tip, Becki). The author has obviously not grasped the concept of too much information, and still doesn’t get it. There are consequences for everything that you do.

I’m very careful about what I put on my blog, although it is semi-pseudonymous, I won’t put anything on the blog that I would not sign my name to or wouldn’t mind having put on the front page of the Plain Dealer. With Google cache and back-ups of back ups if it’s on the net it’s there forever. Besides, my old blog linked to my page at the University, with my name and photo and everything.

There is a time and a place for everything, there’s a time and a place for venting, and people have been telling “bad student stories” or the medical equivalent, annoying patient stories for years. Blogging and the internet have the opportunity for wider dissemination, however. I do like the snarky, insidious way the name Deborah Peel has become the standard pseudonym for patients on medical blogs-you can find the story here.

There is a temptation to vent; there is a temptation to do a data dump. I have acquaintances and experiences that would make tremendous blog fodder. Or, at least, I think so. I’m not sure how that would look in real life. It’s easy to caracature your friends, but if you do it too often, or in a mean spirited way, they will no longer be your friends. In the past, I’ve been tempted to say snarky things about a couple of annoying individuals on the blog. I don’t. It would not improve the situation, it would drag me down to their level, and I do not want to have a mean-spirited, nasty tone on my blog. Finally, just because I think something is of great importance doesn’t mean the rest of the world will care.

Finally, I remember a lecture by Steven B. Levine, in medical school.  At the time, he was the director of the Center for Human Sexuality, and he was talking to us about sexual history taking in Physical Diagnosis class.  Dr. Levine brought up the difference between the private and the secret. Material that is private is acknowledged, but it is not shared with the world at large.  Material that is secret is not acknowledged, and there is an overtone of shame about it.  Secrets are private by their very nature, and in some cases are even concealed from the self.  Material that is private is not necessarily secret or shameful, but is kept to oneself.

The author of the New York Times article has a problem distinguishing between the public and the private and the secret.  Boundaries are good things.  There are people you can invite into your house, people you can invite into your bedroom, and people you wouldn’t speak to at all.  It is important to learn the difference.  Some people encroach on boundaries.  Either they enjoy pushing them or they just don’t care.  I prefer to keep mine.  The pleasure of gossip is tremendous, and it is nice to have one’s own private soapbox to justify oneself to the world.  They are immature pleasures, however, and best foregone.