{"id":2410,"date":"2009-06-10T09:11:33","date_gmt":"2009-06-10T07:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=2410"},"modified":"2009-06-10T09:18:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-10T07:18:00","slug":"truth-in-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/2410","title":{"rendered":"Truth In Blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago I made a post about people online and how they pretend to be something they aren\u2019t<\/a>, and I\u2019ve been thinking about it again recently.\u00a0 I made that post almost exactly 5 years ago and this issue is still a bit of a thorn in my side, especially now that the blogging community has grown so much since I last discussed it.<\/p>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve spoken to a lot of bloggers and have even met one or two in real life and become friends with them.\u00a0 One thing that has always stopped me from meeting more is the underlying fear of them not being who they make themselves out to be on their blogs.\u00a0 I know in many cases it\u2019s probably silly to feel that way, but in talking to different bloggers who have<\/em> met a lot of others, I hear a lot of stories about people who turn out to be nothing like the person you see on their blog.<\/p>\n

Recently I learned about another example of this happening.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really affect me since I never really talk to the person and they live nowhere near me, so I wouldn\u2019t ever be meeting them anyway, but it does get under my skin.\u00a0 Apparently, this person\u2019s blog persona is a complete fabrication.\u00a0 From their name, where they live, what they do and just generally who they are. \u00a0 Many of the experiences they write about on their blog have not even happened, and a lot of what they write about is found through Google, rather than their own life experiences.<\/p>\n

First, let me say that I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an obligation for bloggers to share all of their details.\u00a0 In fact, I often wonder if I am not a bit too<\/em> open about who I am and what goes on in my life.\u00a0 I think everyone has a right to share only what they are comfortable with, as the internet is not necessarily a safe place when it comes to sharing personal information. \u00a0However, not giving your name and other information is entirely different from making up a whole new persona with a life that doesn\u2019t actually exist.<\/p>\n

Ordinarily, if someone did this, I\u2019d think it was silly but not be especially bothered.\u00a0 In this case it is a fellow expat, and when I heard about it I found myself getting increasingly agitated.\u00a0\u00a0 What I\u2019ve heard is that this particular expat, like many of us, struggles quite a lot in their real life and their name, marital status, level of integration and pretty much everything else they discuss on their blog is just simply not true.<\/p>\n

Why does this bug me, you are probably wondering?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s because this person writes as though they have come here and thrived in their new environment, when that is actually a complete falsehood, they are having a rough time just like anyone else.\u00a0 This bothers me because there are so many expats out there who do<\/em> struggle and often will look for people who understand and have been there themselves, and while this person\u2019s blog can be a great source of information, the way in which it\u2019s written can be very deceiving.\u00a0 For the new, culture shocked, expat, it may seem as though there is something wrong with them because this person (supposedly) has breezed through as though it was no problem at all.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, there ARE people out there who have come here and really dug in and adapted wonderfully to their life here, and I applaud them.\u00a0 I think they probably have a lot to share with the rest of us and can give newcomers some great tips on how to get along here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I know a few people who\u2019s blogs I read regularly and wish I\u2019d met them when I first got here.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot I could have learned from them.<\/p>\n

I know how humiliating it can be to come to another country and feel lost.\u00a0 I get the feelings of failure that can come along with it and how it can affect every single aspect of your life.\u00a0 I can also understand why people feel that this is a personal thing that they don\u2019t want to share with the world.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s because they don\u2019t want to upset their family by letting them know how much harder it is than they thought, or just that it upsets them to talk about it.<\/p>\n

What I don\u2019t understand is the need to go drastically in the other direction and make up a life that doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0\u00a0 Not only would you be lying about who you are, which can\u2019t feel good, but you\u2019d be painting a completely false picture to those who read your blog and very likely use your experiences to measure themselves by.<\/p>\n

I understand that everyone has their own ways of coping and nobody expects bloggers to tell the world who they are and where they live.\u00a0 Things like the city they live in and how old they are aren\u2019t really that important either\u2026 but I think people do expect some<\/em> level of truth in the things we say.<\/p>\n

What do you think?\u00a0 Do you feel that there is a certain expectation of truth in blogging? \u00a0Would the fact that a person is blogging about specific issues make a difference in what you expect from them?\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m curious to hear your opinions!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago I made a post about people online and how they pretend to be something they aren\u2019t, and I\u2019ve been thinking about it again recently.\u00a0 I made that post almost exactly 5 years ago and this issue is still a bit of a thorn in my side, especially now that the blogging community has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8,6],"tags":[878,114,57],"class_list":["post-2410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-blog-stuff","category-life-in-nl","category-tantrums-rants","tag-blog-stuff","tag-random-thoughts","tag-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2413,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions\/2413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}