Blogging Consequences

All though I think it would be pretty rare, there is a chance that someone I know personally would stumble across my site and recognize me. It's an even slimmer chance that I'll write something about that person in addition to them discovering this place. I don't want to take any chances, so I don't really post information about people I know. Sure, I'll mention friends and family every once in awhile, but nothing incriminating, personal, or specific. My policy is that I don't write anything that will upset them, especially if they don't know it. It's like telling the world a friend's secrets behind their backs. That would be the worst case scenario for me.

Also, I don't put things on here that would get me into trouble, like things I don't want people to know about me. Revealing information would put me into jeopardy, but at least I wouldn't hurt anybody else. However, people do get into lots of trouble with their blogs.

Jessica, a 23-year-old Los Angeles blogger who pens The Blueprint, had a full-fledged family throwdown thanks to her occasional posts about drunken nights on the town. "I told my parents about my blog to give them some sort of insight into my life," she says. "Then I went home for Thanksgiving and my Mom busts out with: 'All you do is go out and drink every night!' We had this huge blow-out."

"I've heard of a lot of breakups because someone posted, 'Last night I cheated on my boyfriend, don't tell!' - and their boyfriend read their journal," says Hep, a 25-year-old San Francisco Web developer behind Ljdrama.org (short for LiveJournal drama), a site dedicated to chronicling the crises that arise from blogging.

...
Twenty-five-year-old Scott Lapatine, who runs a popular media Weblog in Manhattan (he requested we not divulge the name so as to protect his identity), believes that bloggers have the potential to destroy someone's life with just one post.

"One girl I know mentioned on her blog that her best friend had an abortion," he says. Needless to say, "now they're enemies."

Yikes! Be careful what you blog, even if you think you're anonymous.