Lurking in the blogosphere

Blogging is not natural to me. For someone who shreds papers before throwing them out, rarely provides an address more specific than my city, and enjoys "lurking" in discussion groups unless I have something that I consider really relevant to contribute, posting my thoughts in blog form is contrary to my nature and, frankly, somewhat unnerving. Nonetheless, recognizing that it probably does add to my "critical awareness" (and as directed by my digital research professor), here I am: a participating member of the blogosphere. One of our blog prompts was the question of how comfortable I would be if someone studied one of my digital communities. My first thought was: "That's already happening in this blog." Of course, the question is really deeper than that.

What if, without my prior knowledge, a researcher was studying my contributions to an online forum? What if I was in, for example, a cancer survivors forum and a contributor who I believed to be a fellow survivor was actually a researcher who used and published the material gathered? Honestly, it is so difficult for me to relate to that situation because I simply cannot see myself blogging or posting about anything that I would not want to share in the first place. So I questioned myself regarding my loved ones: What if my dear cousin, who is indeed a breast cancer survivor, posted her thoughts during her ordeal to an electronic forum and a researcher used that information without her prior knowledge? Perhaps I should think that would be wrong -- but really, it seems that no matter from what angle I view it, I cannot see electronic posts in a public or semi-public forum as privileged or private in any manner. Even when masked with an alias and a password, it is relatively easy to identify an e-author in blogs and discussion groups.

For the most part, I take an approach of "Don't say anything you wouldn't say to your mother." Now granted, my mother was something of a character, so that philosophy gives me a great deal of latitude. Nonetheless, the point is that if I post my thoughts, or feelings, or whatever in a forum that other people can access, then I should be prepared for other people to read them, quote them (and misquote them), and use them in whatever other way they want. Electronic forum equates to "open forum" in my mind.