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Edison

The second that I started blogging — well, maybe the second I received the first nasty comment on a blog post, I made a realization about popularity and the blogsphere. If you chose to blog, and you chose to brand your blog as anything more than a personal journal, you have chosen to enter the public life. After hearing about Robert Scoble taking a blogging break over this weekend’s dust up, I thought I’d take a look at this issue.

Blogebrity

Most bloggers, before they achieved whatever level of fame that they now enjoy, were private individuals. No blogger that I can think of had the celebrity of even the most obscure American Idol contestant before opening the doors to his media empire. As such, it makes sense that many famous bloggers do not clearly see what is happening in the media that they spend so much time reporting on.

Anytime that you draw a following, you draw both those who truly appreciate your work and those who believe that you are the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen to your industry. Before they chose to expose themselves to the public, many bloggers were used to existing within an insular social bubble — one where people generally agreed with their sentiments, and if they did not agree at least they discussed issues with decorum. They existed in a world of inter-personal relationships and context.

Taking your life online means allowing people to join your “conversation” in midstream. The expectation that people will understand your context is almost laughable. I don’t imagine that Paris Hilton expects anyone to care about the “facts” of her life, whatever those might be. She understands that her public life is a caricature, and all she can do is to try to limit the real damage to what she cares about.

The fact is as public figures, professional bloggers are now open to all the gossip, slander, lies, exaggerations, satire, and conspiracy theories that fame entails. Ask any child star what they do about it, it’s just something that you have to learn to deal with. If you really want to walk away from it, that is absolutely your choice. However, thinking that this is something that will somehow disappear with time is naive.

Web 2.0 Roundup

When choosing to enter any new medium, be sure to do so with your eyes open. There are plenty of people out there whose lives could be changed by your words, but in order to get to them you have to be strong enough to accept the carnival of horror and stupidity that is “public life”. If you can’t do it, it may be time to consider another form of employment.

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