Holistic Blogging

In a discussion on digital identity the other day I expressed a concern that I have a tendency to hide behind abstract theory in order to avoid revealing too much information about myself.  The result of this is that the version of “me” that is largely portrayed on the web is very thin, and hardly representative of the whole person.

If we were to think of each individual as being comprised of Intellectual, Social, and Emotional elements, the version of me that is portrayed through this blog is largely that of Intellect.  I will sometimes use anecdotal personal stories to help emphasise a point, but generally my references to self are reserved to what I think; not who I am, what I feel, or what I’ve experienced.  Yet anyone who has spoken with me in person will tell you that I sound and act nothing like I write – in reality I’m far less confident and more unsure of myself than this blog may lead you to believe.

In preparing to write a completely unrelated post this morning, I was brought to question the sincerity of this segregation.  I can’t help but think of Jenny Mackness’s comment on Truthful Blogging here, and that omission of information is as significant as inclusion of information.  This post aims to help explore this idea.

Writing Influences

I was never a journal or diary writer growing up, so the idea of capturing personal thoughts on paper – let alone sharing them – remains largely a foreign concept to me.  I was taught that you don’t refer to “I” when writing unless the context is an autobiographical work.  To a degree this has influenced the way I write and the blog posts I contribute, especially in light of how much research literature I read, analyse and synthesise.  Correct or incorrect, I have a niggling concern that talking about “me” distracts from the point.

On the other hand saying that implies that the point of a blog is something other than the individual, which I’m not so sure is the case either.

Blogs aren’t about just essay writing – at least this blog isn’t.  Certainly it’s an integral component here, and one of the key focal points for me personally – to practice and improve my writing skills, to annotate and document the research I’ve been conducting and my evolving ideas, to share and discuss these findings with others, and importantly to maintain and explore the connections I share with my network.

A holistic activity

Yet in articulating that last point I’m brought to question myself.  Exploring and cultivating network connections is a holistic activity that should encompass all three spheres I mentioned earlier – Social, Emotional and Intellectual.  To leave any one (or more) out is to inhibit the potential growth of the network, and the activities that may be engaged in by or with peers.

In considering all this I’m brought to question the fundamental reasons why I blog in the first place, and to wonder how or indeed whether you can cover all three spheres in a coherent way.

Bickering Spheres

For example, the post I was going to write this morning was inspired by a really nasty comment someone left on a YouTube clip of mine.  I won’t repeat it here, since doing so would give it more power and significance than it deserves.  The importance is the train of thought I was led down in its wake.

My initial instinct was to write a post originating from my Emotional sphere, and to point out what a complete asshole this person was (I had plenty of great insults to use too), articulate the impact it had on me personally (how I felt), and then explore the implications this sort of unhealthy communication had on the wider subject of new users of new media and how it can impact or inhibit conversation.

Then my Intellectual side took over and I stopped myself, thinking that use of such strong language would cloud and detract from the final point – the implications for the wider topic of new media usage – and that I should instead approach the matter objectively in a manner that is largely devoid of emotion.

Finally my Social side intervened to question the logic behind removing Emotion from the equation, since a holistic representation of the individual is a significant component in the cultivation of a healthy network.

Ultimately the bickering and arguing of these three spheres completely wrecked my train of thought and lead me to write this post instead.

Spherical Dominance

It would seem, therefore, that the bickering I just mentioned resulted from each sphere trying to  exert dominance over the other two, thus influencing the tone, content and ultimately outcomes of the post itself.

Perhaps we might say, then, that Emotionally-focussed posts seek to express and nurture a feeling; Intellectually-focussed posts to articulate and explain and idea or concept; and Socially-focussed posts to cultivate and facilitate a connection with others.

Based on what I can remember about personality/psychological tests such as Myers-Briggs, individuals seem to naturally adopt certain perspectives over others.  Perhaps this is represented in our blogging voices as well.

At the same time this analysis may amount to nothing more than another academic argument that fuels my intellectual side without actually resolving the issue that my blogging caters too much to one sphere at the neglect of the others.

I have more questions than answers at this point, so I’ll need to think about this further.  In the meantime if you have any comments please let me know – I’m all ears.