I've been thinking about how much information people share on their blogs. It's an interesting thing, the different levels of privacy that people seek on the web. Some blogs that I've read include photos of family, their full names, the cities that they live in/have lived in, and lots and lots of personal details. Some choose to publish photos, faces partially obscured by large sunglasses, and with only a first name attached. But somewhere, somehow, they slip in their last name. And then some people provide a lot of personal details, but not their last name. Living in a city and publishing photos of oneself, you would imagine that it would be pretty easy to still retain some amount of anonymity. What I found scary was that, well, I kind of figured out which apartment building that blogger likely lives in given the disproportionate amount of pictures that have been taken around it. And, this is Boston. It's not a small city. The buildings could theoretically look very similar and all blend together. Red brick, fire escapes, concrete sidewalks, trees, asphalt. But, I happen to know this one not-so-well known area pretty well because of how often I walked past it with several of my friends. Y'all know who you are. It only took one picture where I recognized an air conditioning unit (of all things!) and then I knew the location of most of the pictures. So, that took me by surprise because, no matter how much one tries to keep locations, private information, and the like hidden, tucked away on the web, I guess it's really all a big grassy plain with only a little bit of tall grass hiding the details. No hiding here.
Which kind of brings me around to my original point. I try to be vaguely specific. Friends from college ought to know exactly (or at least have a good idea of) what I'm talking about. I'd like to keep writing about things here both as a way for myself to process life, and also as a way to let my friends know what I'm thinking about these days. And I think, just maybe think, that it's not working out too badly, this tiptoeing around PII. Either way, I think I end up farther on the more private/cautious (call it what you may) end of the spectrum. At this point, I have no plans to post pictures (that's what trips to visit people are for, aren't they?). I have no plans to post my name. I have no plans to post thoughts that I wouldn't mind attaching my name to. And, 90% of what I think about will not show up on here. Still, I think the 10% that I do post includes some of the more important bits. Isn't that the whole point to being vaguely specific?
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