When Blogging Is Not Fun

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day Weekend! 

I’ll admit, this isn’t the post that I had planned for today. In fact, it’s a post I really hoped I would never write or even have to think about.

One thing that has always been in the back of my mind as a blogger is privacy. I’ve always tried to show a much of my life as I felt comfortable with without sacrificing my own sense of security. One of the risks we take as bloggers is putting our lives on a very public forum, but when things go to a place where you aren’t comfortable, it’s time to reevaluate. That time for me is now.

Last week, I got an e-mail from an unknown person with an nondescript e-mail address, claiming they loved my blog. That would have been fine, except the next few lines crossed the line of creepy, continuing to tell me details about my life and family that have never been put out on the internet. 

 

My immediate reaction was to stop blogging. To remove as much as I could from the internet, to sort of take my life and put it into a box and store it somewhere in my closet. But the more I talked about it with my family and thought about it myself, the less I wanted to take that approach.

What happens when we put our lives on the internet, is that we take on this risk whether we realize it or not. But though that liability exists, beautiful things exist, too.

We connect with people around the world that we would have otherwise never met or spoken to. We bridge gaps between cultures and generations. We build an outlet that allows us to grow creatively. But I think most important? We form amazing relationships. 

And none of that is something I’m ready to completely walk away from yet.

So, what now? The first thing I did was scrub all my social accounts. I went through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat and deleted followers that I’ve never interacted with on a personal level. I deleted over 7,000 accounts in a take-no-prisoners approach and I’m still meticulously combing through people. Next, I went through my blog and removed many personal posts and photos. And finally, I sat down to decide what’s next for this space. I want to keep putting out content that everyone enjoys, but what that is remains up in the air. 

For now, I’m taking a step back to enjoy the rest of my time on the mainland, spend time with family and brainstorm a happy medium here.