Daniel E. Renfer’s Blog

Recently, Eric Meyer wrote a post that I have to admit that kinda struck a nerve. He linked to a NYT article. (Bugmenot required) The article talks about the increase in “baby blogs” (blogs about pregnancy and parenthood).

With a new blog popping up every 4.7 seconds, according to Technorati, it is no surprise that there would be parent blogs, along with those for dating, politics and office life. But what makes them interesting is the way that blogging about parenthood seems to have become part of parenthood itself.

They also mention that writing about every little thing that your new baby does might somehow be harmful to zir.

But the question is, at who’s expense? How will the bloggee feel, say, 16 years from now, when her prom date Googles her entire existence?

Eric takes a rather aggressive stance. I believe that this may be somewhat of a personal attack rather than a general, but his words were still rather generalized.

I’m not there yet, but I have a feeling that when this child is finally born, I’ll probably be writing about each and every little thing that he does. I am in favor of keeping a clear and well-described journal. The issue of privacy does plague me from time to time, but I have thus far had the luxury of near total anonymity. (save for a few former friends from my Livejournal account that have added my new feed.)

When I first started writing in my Livejournal, I was rather personal. I wrote about a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t have. I was going through a rather oddly-dark time in my life, and my journal was therapy for me. I don’t write like that very much anymore. Partially, because I just don’t have the time. It’s a lot easier to write in a journal when you’re single and unemployed.

I have begun, as of late, to censor myself a bit more. I don’t speak openly of all the tiniest nuances of my life like I used to. I have to consider that as time goes on, more and more people will have access to my writings. (especially now that they are hosted on my site. The chances are greater that something I’ve written will fall into the wrong hands and come back to haunt me.

The NYT article made a good point about google. Google has already begun to index portions of my site. If you use that search box on the right, you can use them to search through my site. Where Google fails, my own search function means that Toby’s future girlfriends will have ready access to all of the juciest baby stories. It will be a small matter to jump back to Feb. 2006 and read about anything I write about him. That could prove embarassing.

One thing I don’t think anyone is considering is, what will life be like 15 years from now? We have come a long way since 1990. Do you remember what the internet was like in 1990? Unless you are Tim Berners-Lee, (and if you are, I’m greatly honored, sir.) then chances are your answer is “no”. What will the Internet of 2020 be like? My son will be about 15, right at that proverbial point where his hypothetical girlfriend decides to search Google.

Blogs are getting more and more popular every day. It’s conceivable that within the next 15 years, the number of internet users with a blog of some form or another will probably be somewhere around 80%. I have no clue how many people will be online, but I’m sure it’s a lot more than there are now. Who’s to say that that girl’s mom or dad didn’t set up a similar blog for her?

I can understand if you’re talking about something that is really private for your child, but I don’t think the flood of posts from new parents “Today, he threw up on at least 5 different people” is really that damaging.