Blogging was, and still is still a popular hobby for many, and Wendy would blog whenever she had time on her hands. It was a place where she felt that she could express her feelings freely. However she was not aware that what she blogged about could affect her relationship with her friend Nicole.
Reminiscing on her blog, which included a past relationship with Tom, was not Wendy's intention of going in between Nicole and Tom. However a blog does not restrict anyone from reading it (unless it is password-protected, but lets assume it wasn't) and friends of Nicole informed her of what Wendy has posted, suspecting her of having a ulterior motive for writing something like that on her public blog. The situation started to get complicated as Nicole was afraid and otherwise reluctant to confront Wendy regarding her blog post. With the growing misunderstandings between Nicole and Wendy, it became even harder to confront each other and tension was all that is left of their friendship.
Both parties were wrong in some way in this story, which led to a broken friendship between Wendy and Nicole. I'm sure there were better ways to deal with situations like this. Tell me what do you guys think.
Sup Zoe,
ReplyDeleteLike Brad urged me the other day, Wendy needs to learn to anticipate that her freedom of expression might cause disaffecting consequences. From there, she will know not to discuss about the relationship on the blog, supposing she doesnt truely know her actions are going to cause the slightest disagreement with Nicole.
But if she knows or has an ulterior motive in writing such a blog post, and only she knows her own heart, then she must be implicated for any of the least suspicions of her intentions. If she had a grudge against Nicole, she should have confronted her in person interpersonally and solve that one; not creating a new stir now involving a new person; her previous bf, and causing more emotional distress for others and herself. That is just so silly of her.
If she had a grudge against her ex bf, she should take it up with him interpersonally also, rather than potentially getting her friendship with Nicole in jeopardy, just because Nicole is now in a relationship with him. Doing otherwise is just so silly of her again.
That brings us back to anticipation. Wendy needs to anticipate her actions will cause problems for her friendship with Nicole. But I hardly think Wendy failed to anticipate. Rather I want to believe Wendy is of age and knows exactly what she is doing; which is to blackmail Nicole or her ex bf, or both at the same time! So it mightn't had been an issue of anticipation; rather it is an issue of EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL!!!!!!!!
Of course Wendy herself might not have known that she is unconciously being given to blackmailing, and she mistakenly says or misrepresents the true nature of her feminine psyche/mind/soul/being for a blissful reminiscence. Who could ever believe that? Haha!
Cheers
Hi Zoe,
ReplyDeleteYour post raises an interesting question. What is, and what is not, acceptable to be broadcast to the public?
Mundane things about one's life should have no problem being broadcast-ed, but when your post involves another person, it seems inappropriate regardless of what the post itself has, since it might intrude upon the privacy of the other party. A real life example I had was when a friend's friend of mine was instigated to blog about me by a fellow classmate. The post wasn't exactly complementary, and long story short, I found out about the post.
This created a very negative atmosphere in the class as many people started to take sides, depending on whether they agreed with the post or not. In the end, the owner of the blog had to apologise in public and that it had been a misunderstanding.
My point is, no matter how well-meaning or innocent the post might have been, the simple fact that Wendy had posted something that involved either directly or indirectly the relationship between Nicole and Tom would have been misunderstood by the other party. The best thing Wendy can do is to simply clear the air as my classmate did, and for Nicole to accept the apology graciously.
Hey Zoe,
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me the problem is more rooted in Nicole's insecurities with Wendy being her friend AND her boyfriend's ex-partner. Wendy's reminiscence of the good old days with Tom probably hit a raw nerve which got Nicole all uptight.
I do not know to what extent or how explicit the blog post was, but if it was really affecting Nicole, she should really let Wendy know in a respectful manner.
Sometimes these misunderstanding can arise from all this public blogging especially if you do not know who your target audience is. Wendy probably did not know Nicole could find out about her blog post. If Wendy did know about it, she would probably exercise some restraint out of consideration for Nicole.
BUT if she wanted to blog all she wanted without a care in the world, then a simple password would suffice. That would be the wiser option to me.
Thank you, Zoe, for this pertinent post. Yours is the only one that introduces a scenario that astutely demonstrates how the medium we are using for our cyberspace discussion carries an inherent danger. Indeed, if what you are suggesting is correct, then Wendy must be quite foolish in not thinking her friend Nicole would not find the post related to their mutual "friend" Tom.
ReplyDeleteThis is where things are a bit unclear to me. Did Wendy have a relationship with Tom before Nicole did? Is that what you are suggesting? Also, should I assume that Wendy's post involved a positive reflection on her time with Tom?
These matters might have been made clearer in your post, Zoe. The drama would be heightened if we readers could know exactly what is happening here.
There are a couple language issues to take note of as well:
a) lets assume >>> let's assume
b) ...friends of Nicole informed her of what Wendy has posted.... >>> ...friends of Nicole informed her of what Wendy HAD posted....
c) Reminiscing on her blog, which included a past relationship with Tom, >>> Reminiscing on her blog, which included writing about(?) a past relationship with Tom,
d) something like that >>> like what?
e) it became even harder to confront each other >>> it became even harder for them to confront each other
Thanks again for your effort! You received some good feedback!