Do you censor your own blog?
Yuhong is worried that as more people visit her blog, she will censor her content. You might recall that Yuhong is the latest NRC researcher to join the blogger community.
There is no question that writting for a public, however small, will impact the content. In this sense, a blog is not intimate. But I think she forgets that a blog is social tool.
I do take notes, very careful notes… and they are not in this blog. My blog is not for private thoughts, but rather, to express thoughts that I feel free to share. Because I know other people might read me, I have to think about them a bit more, and this process leads me to think more about what I do and why I do it. The fact that many other people, including Yuhong, spend more time worrying about why they do things and how they do them, will just all make us smarter as a community.
I know how she feels.I waiver between who cares what people think to ‘oh my god I’m making myself unemployable!)
My Phd is on portrait prints in later 17th-century London.
Comment by Claire — 27/6/2004 @ 11:43
Ok, changed the description beside your link.
As for making yourself unemployable, I would not worry too much. It may indeed get you into some political troubles, but I’ve been speaking my mind for ever and I’m still doing quite fine and my colleagues like me and so on. There is no doubt that I paid a price for it, but then, if you never want to upset anyone, you might as well being ready to settle for very little, because the mere fact that you may succeed in some small way in the future will get some people jealous, upset.
Let’s face it: if you make something of yourself, in whatever way, some people will try to take it away from you. Better get used to standing your ground.
Comment by Daniel Lemire — 27/6/2004 @ 11:54
Found your blog through yulbog and my eye immediately caught the NRC acronym since it’s my employer as well (the BRI to be more specific). I don’t worry too much about the content of my writings since mine’s a photoblog.
Comment by nantel — 28/6/2004 @ 19:41
Well, the government or any university would have a hard time censoring or going after one of their employees for the content of their blog. It might cut your chances of getting a job, I’m sure it happens, but once you have the job, it is really hard and counterproductive to try to make people stop thinking about what they do and writting about it. It probably applies to all jobs as well.
Beside, if an employer wanted to fire me because of my blog, I’d leave willingly.
As for getting the job in the first place, if the employer doesn’t like my blog, they probably wouldn’t like me, so fair is fair.
Comment by Daniel Lemire — 29/6/2004 @ 14:45