Skip to main content

Dunham Blog, Social Media and Privacy

I started to do my blog years ago simply to record our son’s childhood.  Almost 8 years of memories.

When I look back on some of my blog posts, it seems so unreal what has happened to our family.  Our son was a toddler and now his is 11 years old ending the 5th grade.

During those years, the focus of my blog had certainly changed because of my strokes. I never intended my blog to be about strokes, aphasia, etc. I realize that many of my posts are dark and perhaps too personal in nature.

When I actually post my blog on social media, I realize because of my “blog traffic” means a lot of people read my blog.

There is a certain responsibility when you understand that people read your stuff. In the old days, journals and diaries were pretty private. Now, blogs are “out there.”  Yet, I still include stark and real insights about my life.

As an elected official, I have a sense of responsibility to be conscious about my views. I never want my post to reflect poorly on the College of Western Idaho. So too, when my Twitter and Facebook posts are written, I try to be mindful that “people” rarely understand the difference between my personal  observations and my public role as an elected official.

The impact of social media is interesting. Unlike journals and diaries which could be destroyed, social media is “forever on the Internet.” With the advent if social media in the age of the Internet, what happens now is reputations are destroyed rather than journals and diaries.  

For me it is a conundrum. What should I actually share?

Several years ago, a reporter wrote a story about me.  The reporter told me later that he read all of my blog posts to get a sense about “Mark Dunham.” Many of my blog posts after my strokes were incredibly raw and angry.

The fact that the reporter used my blog as background for his story about my was unnerving to me. 

My blog is “Out there!”

Yet, I continue to blog about pretty personal things. I have written less than before because I really do not know who reads my blog. What is my audience?

And, as my son grows up, I realize he will read my blog at some point.  At one point when the focus of my blog was my son, I got a weird comment about my son saying he was really good looking. Pedophile? Local? Russia? Some of my readers are from Russia! Makes me queasy.

As a safety precaution, should change my blog or delete my blog?

Again, “it is a conundrum.”

I do experiments. I can monitor the use of my blog though I cannot identify actual readers. I can post my blog on Facebook and/or Twitter. Or, I can simply publish the blog on the web without social media.  The results are what you would expect. Social media results get me more readers.

Is this a good or bad thing? 

The bottom line, despite my misgivings, I will continue to blog. Nevertheless, I do not blog much as I used to. And I am reflecting about the focus of my blog.

What to do?

I will post this on web and Twitter but not on Facebook. 

The results will be telling. Or not.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Two Faces of the American Dream

The massive wave of Norwegian immigration to Minnesota from the 1850s through the early 20th century wasn't a casual choice; it was an escape from crushing land scarcity and economic desperation.  My ancestors, the Dunhams, arrived in 1851 and built a life in Otter Tail County in Minnesota. My great-great-grandfather, Jens Christian Dunham, didn’t just survive—he thrived. He served in the Minnesota legislature as a Republican from 1888 to 1890 and later became a staunch advocate for President Teddy Roosevelt. He was the literal embodiment of the American Dream: an immigrant who fled poverty to become a lawmaker in his new home. Fast forward a century, and a new wave of immigrants—this time from Somalia—is following that exact same blueprint. Like the Norwegians before them, they fled hardship to build a future in Minnesota, and many have run for office to serve the state that welcomed them. Yet, the political rhetoric surrounding these two groups couldn't be more polarized. Don...
Post a Comment
Read more

Phantom Blindness and Taking a Break after Strokes

I met with my eye doctor last week about taking some time off from my vision therapy. I have been doing therapy since my stroke almost two and a half years ago. I am tired, and a need a break. My doctor said, “This is completely understandable. Take some time off.” At the appointment, my doctor tested my vision. Because of the strokes, my vision was affected, and I have a problem in my field of vision on the right side. I have a deficit with my right side peripheral vision. However, it is getting better. During the test, I told him that I “sense things on the right side of my peripheral vision.” It seems that I know that something is there, but I cannot really distinguish what it is. He told me that there is a body of thought describing phantom vision or phantom blindness. A Polish researcher, L. Bieganowski, described this phantom blindness this way:    “The subject of the paper is the phenomenon of phantom vision. It occurs among the blind (or almost blind...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greek orthodox and Catholic‘s

Being a history buff, I’ve always understood that the Catholic Church was split in about 1000 A.D. Our Greek tour guide mentioned the differences a little bit yesterday, but she did not capture the full history. Today I saw a small Greek orthodox by the roadside and I’m going to insert about the history. Eastern Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics are the result of what is known as the East-West Schism (or Great Schism) of 1054, when medieval Christianity split into two branches. The Byzantine split with Roman Catholicism came about when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Holy Roman Emperor in 800. From the Byzantine viewpoint, this was a slap to the Eastern Emperor and the Byzantine Empire itself — an empire that had withstood barbarian invasions and upheld the faith for centuries. After Rome fell in 476, Byzantium was the only vestige of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne’s crowning made the Byzantine Emperor redundant, and relations between the East and...
1 comment
Read more