Well, here we are. It’s 2016 and I am contemplating what to write for my first personal blog post. Ever. I’ve been a Facebook user for quite awhile, but for some reason have always managed to avoid “blogging” in the more formal sense.
I have been thinking about blogging for the last couple of years. Actually, I think about thinking a lot and even wrote a PhD on it. But that is a story for another post….. In academia, it seems to be the “done thing” to set up a blog or personal website to showcase all of the amazing things that you are doing. And then you sit back and hope that future employers and interested readers will drop by to read what is the digital equivalent of your CV. Seems simple enough, so why hadn’t I done it sooner?
Lots of reasons, some more well founded than others. Among other things, I am a personality researcher and often tend to approach life through the lens of personality. What does a blog say about the person who wrote it? There was a concern (probably unfounded) that a blog which talks about how amazing I am, and how ground breaking my work is, would also make me look more than a little self-centred, egotistic, and narcissistic. I would like to think that these words don’t accurately reflect me, but actions do speak louder than words.
So what to do? A little more reflection on that is needed. Maybe a couple of posts, just to try out a few things. But if you get the sense that I am becoming the self-focused blogger that I feared, don’t hesitate to remind me that it isn’t all about me!
Shane