We live in an age of information. Sometimes, it seems harder to disconnect from phones, email, and computers than it is to stay connected! So how much (or how little) personal information and experience do you put out there?
Social networking sites have made it possible for anyone and everyone to find an audience of friends, family, coworkers, and even relative strangers. Again, the question of how much do you (or don’t you) say about your everyday life is important.
This sort of thing is on my mind lately in regards to health. Do you talk about your health or your family’s health in your online journals? Here in the Families.com Health Blog, I do tend to draw from my own life a lot. My own health questions often inspire articles. My own experiences with chronic illnesses like allergies, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease are easy to find. But I also try to make things informative.
In my personal journal, I do a lot more whining. I gripe about bad nights of sleep. I complain about my aching feet after a morning at the cats-only boarding facility or a nagging headache. Sometimes, I talk about my depression. But in my personal journal, I have the ability to filter who sees what. Some faces I don’t show to the world. Some complaints are just between me and my friends.
But there are some bloggers out there who don’t filter. They put it all out there, “liveblogging” their health issues from diagnosis to treatment to cure (if there is one). My friend Jay Lake wrote in great detail about his recent experience with colon cancer — as it was happening. And I mean “as it was happening” — and as it is still happening. We got pictures and videos from the hospital. We got excerpts from diagnostic reports. We got pictures of the tumor. When Jay was unable to update his journal, friends on the scene did it for him. Hundreds of readers were able to follow his journey via Livejournal. We knew what was happening almost as soon as it happened.
A former Families.com blogger is doing something similar on her own cancer journey. She’s using Facebook as a quick and easy way to keep friends and family informed about her progress.
There are a lot of pros and cons to liveblogging your health. And there are still a lot of thoughts about the issue bouncing around my head, too… so look for another post on the pros and cons of health blogging soon!