Rethinking how I create and share stuff online

Greetings, humans.

Happy Easter! Or Happy April Fool’s (? do people even say this?)

As usual, it’s been a while since I’ve posted in here.

It’s not due to lack of ideas or content that I want to share with you, though. Right now, I have 118 drafted blog posts just piling up because I’m too wary of hitting the publish button.

A lot has changed since I wrote about everything I wanted for this year. A lot has changed with regards to my routine, however what I want for this year has stayed the same – peace of mind & self love. That’s what I want now and for the long run as well, and though it might have seemed unambitious at first, now I realise that it’s a heck of a challenge.

You start making yourself smaller in other to accommodate others in your life who do nothing to deserve that, you start neglecting what you truly want in order to fit in and “belong”… And, voilà, who are you, really, and is this what you truly want?

In the end of January, I ended an important phase in my life.

I said a tough goodbye to dear friends I made in my time in Germany.

I left a place I learned to call home. My German course ended…

Etc, etc.

Ever since then, I’ve been introverting the fuck out

(I got this expression from my twitter pal @kindofstrange and I <33 it!)

Rethinking everything I do, how I do ’em. My dad always said that I put my heart and soul into anything that I do, and despite it being something good (I guess?), it’s also quite draining. I don’t wanna put my heart n soul into things that don’t really matter, you know?

A few days ago, Rebecca (from @aclotheshorse) posted on her instagram about keeping boundaries on a virtual diary. I’d already been thinking about how I share things online, how I manage privacy and whatnots, and it got me thinking. Her boundary is her house – she shares it from the outside, but keeps the inside mostly private.

I share a lot of stuff about myself/my life (mostly on my twitter),

but I never talk about work. Which is ironic, considering I’m a freelancer and everything I do is online/for the internet. I might occasionally mention the struggles of being a freelancer, but that’s about it. Also, I only (and rarely) share photos/details about people I’m hanging out with after I’ve said bye to them, and with their consent. I rarely accept people tagging me on photos because I don’t want my timeline knowing who I’ve been hanging out with/when/where. Luckily enough, most of my friends put their phones away when we are hanging out, so that moment is truly just ours. Sometimes we make instagram stories or tweet if something funny/unusual happens. I talk about some struggles I’ve had with past relationships (so you can learn from my mistakes!), but I don’t really talk about current ones because I ain’t got none #foreveralone jkjk.

Whenever we share things online, we are starting a dialogue with our audience/recipients.

If I share a photo of my dog, I am giving an opportunity to people to make a comment about her. If I post a photo of myself, I am opening myself up to all sorts of comments on my looks/body/hair/weight/outfit/whatever. If I bitch about the weather, there will always be a random person that doesn’t even follow me to say OH I LOVE THE SUN. Or something like that.

I don’t want people to be able to comment on every little thing in my life, so that’s why I have boundaries for what I share on the internet. It’s up to me to not give a fuck about people’s opinions on some issues, but sometimes, even though I couldn’t care less what people think, I just don’t want to have this conversation with strangers online.

Online boundaries and privacy are important. !!

Anyways.

After two months of utter introspection, I have now a clearer mind as to what kind of content I want to create and share with you.

And I will do it from the messy and crowded desk from the picture above. And yes, that is a gigantic cup of tea. Or it might be a small bowl for soup. ??? 

During the past 8 years or so, because of studying for uni entrance exams + studying for uni, I’ve neglected my hobbies a bit. Crafts, music, photography, dancing, languages, sports, games, comics, art. I’ve blogged about all these things, but eventually deleted every blog because I always abandoned them.

So, I want this blog to

1. stay alive!!!!!!!!1
2. be a safe place for me (and you!) to geek out about all my (our!) hobbies, creative endeavours and favourite artists ^.^
3. be a space to exchange life lessons.

A lot of what I’ve learned – skills, general knowledge and life/adulthood stuff comes from reading and listening to other people’s stories, and that’s always helped me. I hope I’ll be able to help you somehow. Worst case scenario this will be something that I can look back at 50 years from now and go OH SO I USED TO THINK LIKE THAT.

So, now that I am more sure about my boundaries online and about what I want to write about, I will attempt to blog more often.

Now, let’s talk!

1. How do you keep boundaries online and manage your privacy?
2. Do you still read blogs? What are your favourite bloggers?
3. Is there anything that you’d like to see here?

You can share your thoughts either by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @sofiachangx.

Also, a note:

I think it’s important to discuss and learn more about your boundaries online, data protection and privacy, especially considering the current context of Facebook’s privacy breach ordeal. And because I specialized in this during my Law exchange so I need to geek out about it with someone. BTW – FT is doing a very cool and informative series of articles about the FB thing, here.

xoxo

ps: I put this little image because I wanted to share these cute watercolor leaves by Bang Bang Bureau, available for download here.