Weblogging =~ Pornography?
My thoughts on the Xanga craze phenomenon.
People are so into this Xanga thing that it's borderline addiction.
One thing I've noticed is that they are WAY too open and vulnerable with their posts. They use Xanga to reveal feelings and thoughts that they would not share in person. In essence, people feel like they have at last found a low-risk outlet to "share" their intimate feelings/thoughts.
Problem #1: Xanga does NOT protect you from you.
I think the illusion of safety comes because when you're sharing in person, you have to deal w/ their reactions (ie: rejection, acceptance) right away, but w/ Xanga, you can post and not have to worry about rejection as much. I found out not too long ago what eprops were, and it's funny, yet sad how people crave these eprops. I know a few Xanga'ers who constantly check their own posts to see if comments or eprops have been given. (I guess it kinda shows just how much people crave encouragement in their lives) The illusion of safety comes because people aren't going to reject you if they don't like what you shared... they're just gonna stop reading what you posted. And since you don't know who read your posts or not, you are "safe" from rejection.
True, you might be safe from rejection, but let me point out that there are other things to protect besides your sense of acceptance.
A principle I learned that really shook my views on "dating" relationships is the principle of emotional adultery. Many people who are "saving" themselves for marriage are really bent on keeping themselves physically pure for their future husband/wife. The common phrase spoken to each other in dating relationships - "I don't believe in sex before marriage, so let's make sure we don't cross that line."
Well, emotional adultery takes that same principle of sexual purity and applies it to your emotions. I believe that there are certain things reserved for marriage. Sex, yes. But also there are certain emotions and there is a depth of sharing and vulnerability that should ONLY be reached w/ your marriage partner. So if you say to your dating partner - "no sex before marriage" yet you confide in him/her as you would to your spouse, then I believe that you are committing emotional adultery.
That's a whole topic of discussion in itself, but the reason why I'm sharing this is because there are Xanga webloggers who because of the illusion of safety share things with the whole digital world feelings and thoughts that shouldn't be shared. I feel that in a way they are committing emotional adultery with the whole world. It's as if you were posting pictures of yourself naked or having sex... but in an emotional sense.
ok, ok... I know that's a little too harsh and I AM going a little overboard... but I really wanted to make my point that Xanga does NOT protect you from sharing more than you should be sharing.
...More to come on my Xanga page on the evils of Xanga....
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