The Ethics of Blogging - Part 1

Rule #1 - Know your audience

By now, if you blog, you should know who your audience is and who your audience can be.  Unfortunately, many people are still forgetful of the fact that blogging is a public forum and everyone has access to the content you share.  Recently, I was contacted regarding a situation with a Mommy Blogger.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have become more interested in personal blogs and the real life behind these daily posters, so I was quick to investigate the situation.  Here is what has transpired:

A proud mother has been blogging incessantly about her two daughters and their lives in a suburban, southern community.  With two years behind her, the Mommy Blogger has been able to attract a reasonable following within her local community and online.  Most of the posts revolve around their daily lives and the blog acts as a platform for keeping family and friends updated.  At first glance, this blog (which I am not naming or linking to as I feel it is inappropriate) is the same as 50 million other blogs.  However, this blogger is not aware of who is reading.

In several posts, the Mommy Blogger references a child in her daughters school (Her daughter is in Kindergarten) who was sneezing and coughing all over her during her time volunteering.  Although the Mommy Blogger never names the child or posts photos, the local community is reading and begins to wonder, "is she talking about my kid?"  To make matters worse, the Mommy Blogger begins to chastise the parents of the child for not teaching proper manners.  Her readers chime in with comments supporting her "Parent's Responsibility" standpoint.

After some investigating, it has come to my attention that the child she is referencing is a special needs child with a special needs sibling.  Although I do not have children of my own, I have been fortunate to work with special needs kids on occasion and am aware of the challenges parents face.  Although no one enjoys being sneezed or coughed on, a little understanding is deserved in certain circumstances.

Now, imagine being the parent of this child.  Even though only a handful of people may know the true identity of the child being mentioned, the fact that this blog is popular among mothers within the local area can result in gossip and embarrassment.  As the old saying goes, "think before you speak," or in this case, post.

After hearing this story, I contacted the Mommy Blogger in question and reminded her that a blog is not always the best place to judge someone.  If she was aware of her audience, she might have recognized that there was the potential of embarrassing someone for no other purpose than to share a "woe is me" story with her audience. 

Sadly, the Mommy Blogger in question just deleted my comment without a response.

As the title of this post is The Ethics of Blogging, all of us have a responsibility to operate in a civilized manner (do unto others...).  It is imperative that bloggers understand that it is a very big world and your neighbor, boss, garbage man, or school teacher might be reading the content you publish online. 

I believe in transparency in blogs and value people who share insights into their lives and daily struggles, but a level of decorum is necessary.  Especially when discussing children. So, next time you rant on your blog that your neighbor's dog keeps crapping in your yard or your daughters friend dresses "a little slutty," remember that their lives are not fodder for your blog and the stories run deeper than what you see on the surface.  You never know, you might just be insulting someone who can't help it.  Just because it's a digital conversation, doesn't mean we should throw out the traditional rules of how to treat people... remember, do unto others....gossip has it's place, but leave the gossip to Perez Hilton.

Comments

[Yianni Garcia]

Great post! I was thinking about commenting with a Perez Hilton remark but then you snatched the thought right out of my head with the closing line.

I think it was mighty big of you not to post the link to this infamous mommy blogger. But I guess since you're preaching blogethics it wouldn't be appropriate after all. Specially since I would have probably ignored a tidbit or two of your teachings and commented a semi-aggressive comment on her blog. I have a mentally challenged step brother and seeing this type of insensitivity coming for a mother, from all people, hits home.

This post also remind me of the cyber bullying issue amongst the tween and teenage group.

[KJ's Mom]

Way to go! We should probably send Mommy blogger a link to your blog so she'd have the opportunity to have a more clear understanding of her responsibilites in making judgement comments such as these.