Blogfession

December 21, 2005

There is just something about blogs that make people loosen up and admit to things they may never say verbally. I don’t understand it actually. There is a certain anonymity to blogging. I now write for four print magazines, Internet Telephony, Customer Interaction Solutions, SIP and IMS but when I blog I am still startled on occasion.

Usually what happens is I am attending a trade show and it is late at night in my hotel room and I am sitting at a desk writing. The next morning I see many people who have read my blog already. Two things always make we weird out a bit. The first is how fast people read what I wrote and have formed an opinion about it and second just the fact that when I am alone in a hotel room blogging it just seems unbelievable that I am writing something the entire world has access to. Sometimes I feel like I am writing in a private journal since I am alone when I write.

This sentiment was echoed recently in a court case where a person admitted to committing DUI manslaughter on his blog. This happened after telling police he had no recollection of what happened in a car crash he was involved in. He apparently pulled the steering wheel of a car a as a prank and caused it to roll over repeatedly. His blood alcohol content after the crash measured 0.185, more than double the legal limit. Here is the full story.

Perhaps we need a new term – blogfession to describe these sorts of incidents.