Blogs + Angst = BAD

I've spent most of my afternoon working on my Review of Literature for my senior thesis project (which is about writing screenplay adaptations of character-driven young adult fiction). And I have finally been able to find relevant sources, because, with my teacher's permission (which I requested based on the advice of Melissa Marr - if you see this, thanks very much!), I've been using nonacademic sources. Such as blogs.

Using blogs is allowed as long as I acknowledge that they are blogs and therefore informal and nonacademic and suchlike. This is great for me, because blogs and nonacademic internet sources are really all I have to go on with this topic. But it also gets me thinking.

I've known quite a few people in my time who have basically used their blogs as places to dump large amounts of angst on the internet at large. Long ago, before I realized the ramifications of posting everything I thought on the internet, I used to do the same thing. I have acquaintances from school who routinely vent all sorts of negative emotion on their blogs. And I'm reasonably certain that lots of professionals - writers, performers, publishers, PhDs, fill in the blank - have done it too. It's so easy; blogs are an easy way to put your opinions out there. You can just say "hey, this is what I think, and I'm entitled to my own opinion. Here it is!" without having to edit yourself. It's simple and it's stress-relieving, so why not?

Well, the "why not" is that people can quote you. "Look what so-and-so said!" It could end up in a thesis paper like mine. I'm trying not to use anything too emotional, mostly just using blogs as a source of facts (if opinionated ones) about the authors' role in adaptations, but not everyone would do the same. Someone could so easily find my(/your/their favorite author's/Billy Bob's/Random Person #42's) angst and cite it in a formal paper.

By posting on a blog or anywhere on the internet, you have to acknowledge that people will see what you write and may use it. That said, there are some people who really don't care. Still, though. Call me paranoid, but I'm quite terrified of the prospect of random strangers finding something that maybe I wrote while I was angry or grouchy or frustrated and taking it as gospel truth.

And this is why I intend to make every effort to always be careful of what I post on the internet.

End rant. (Yes, rant. But one that I'm okay with people reading.)

Love,
Bex