On Blogging in the "Real World": This is Not Your College Freshman Xanga

Does this sound like a blog entry that you've posted recently?

"icant believe that alistair said that s*** to me. hes so rude. i really just want to go home and punch him out right now, but I guess maybe i wont. i've just been so sad lately that its hard to handle my life, and I wish things would get better. RUDE PEOPLE SAYING RUDE THINGS TO ME WONT HELP!!!!"


Confession: I was once a drama-blogger just like this. I put all my deepest and darkest emotions on the line so that the world could see them. I passive-aggressively posted about my roommates and friends so that I could get them to apologize for things I thought that they did wrong. I revealed moments of weakness and depression so that my friends would come to my rescue, cheer me up, and solve all my problems.


Blogging according to a set of guidelines doesn't limit creativity, it focuses creativity to help the work achieve its full potential. Since I'm going to start to blog with focus, I'm going to need some guidelines to keep me from writing the same type of blog that I did in college.


Here are some questions I'm going to ask myself when I blog:

• Would I want my Mom to read it?
• Would I want my boss to read it?
• Would I want my best friend to read it online rather than hear it from me in person?
• Would I want my pastor/spiritual leader or career mentor to read it?
• Would I publish this blog posting to my church, my writing group, or my office without embarrassment?

The Christian New Testament has some valuable about discernment on what we say, think, and write as well:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I am convinced that the things we blog about should also be true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Thus, I will write about such things.