1 You schedule your dentist visits months in advance!? Knowing you, you probably made an appointment back in September 2008. Oh, and there should be no guilt if there's no crime. I can see you raising your hand and saying what Ham wrote, "I make a conscious decision to broadcast my life every day, and I accept the consequences." Big Brother's not going to bail you out if you truly overshare.

2 I had a closet full of baby clothes myself, long before M1 came along.  I'm sure you are prudently gender neutral in your selections.  I, however, was convinced if I ever had a baby, it would be a boy so that's ALL I had hanging in that closet.

Everyone is absurd.

Maybe that's why I like you so much?

At any rate, it's your blog.  Share what you wish.  As for MKH, well, that's a post in itself!

3 Guard wife is right, we are all absurd.  We aren't all sharing it because we are wimps.  You aren't a wimp.  If there had been blogs when I was your age there is no telling what I might have shared, or might not!  I think we are in some way living vicariously with the blogs we read. I feel very close to some of the people I read. I guess it's my feeling that great minds think alike, or maybe just voyeurism. Right now I can ONLY read on the computer so keep all the posts coming. I won't be getting new glasses till my eye checkup on the 18th.  Then I have the other cataract done on the 30th, I hope.  Till then just keep sharing all you can and keep me entertained.  Thanks;D

4 Interesting article.  What social networking (and blogging) say about ourselves and our society fascinates me.  I have been going rounds in my own head about what value blogging has for my own life lately, and I keep coming back to what Ruth touched on... I definitely do some living vicariously through blogs I read.  And they also help me to feel less alone, reading about the commonality of this absurd human existence.  But there is no doubt in my mind that it's nearly impossible not to "overshare" in some way. 

I had lots of baby stuff too before my daughter was conceived that was both treasured and a source of heartache.   Some days it was all I could do to not set it on fire in a fit of rage. 

5 Ruth, you too are sharing by commenting. Commenters are as much as part of the blogosphere as bloggers. Sarah has attracted a good bunch of people. I'm here for them - including you - as well as Sarah herself.

I've only met a couple of bloggers in real life - Sarah and my blogparent James Hudnall - but I came to know them so well that our first meetings felt like we were picking up where we had left off online. This is not to say that imaginary and real life are wholly interchangeable. On the contrary, it was amazing to feel the positive energy that Sarah radiates in person without any high-tech filtration.

dutchgirl, I wonder how much of society is touched by blogging. Many people I know are bloggers or at least blog readers and most people I know are involved in online social networking, but there are still many people who are outside this virtual realm and who may never enter it because they don't (or can't) read. So I wonder what social networking and blogging says about us sharers as opposed to the nonsharers.

And not every social networker is much of a sharer - how many MySpace pages contain only the barest information? How many actually blog every single day, as Guard Wife has been doing lately? Why do some share more than others? You can learn a lot more about Sarah from her blog than you can learn about me from mine.

There aren't any simple answers to that last question because blogs are mirrors of us, and people are complicated. We've all got our reasons. The reasons we tell others. The reasons we keep to ourselves. The real reasons we'd rather deny. What a messy species we are.

Yes, blog readers can be voyeurs. But seeing the messes of others, seeing how others cope with them, even triumph over them, can help us deal with our own messes. Personal blogs at their best give us perspective.