I realize I’m probably a complete and total hypocrite in this particular subject, so please do not be fully offended at this post if you fit into the category I’m lambasting. I fit into that category as well (I think), since my own About Me is as vague as it is bland.

So here it goes: it really irritates me when bloggers do not bother to write something that sounds even vaguely like an autobiography–even a mock autobiography. Whenever I click on the thousands of “About Me” pages and there is nothing but a contact email or some obscure quote or a pair of initials, I feel like dark clouds cover the sun and little bits of lightning shoot forth from mine eyes.

I feel cheated. I do want to know more about you, dear blogger. The way I see it, if you see it fit to share intimate details about your life and family and thought process –even sometimes to the alarming point of using true first and last names and listing addresses– why shouldn’t you just go the extra 50 yards and actually write a little blurb about yourself?

People perhaps don’t realize that the “About Me” section –that wafer-thin piece of biography– is our small connection to them as readers. It really is a bit like breaking bread and knowing a bit of trivia behind the clever writer, or the raw confessionalist, or the kischy crafter or the media insider. It lets us know you are a living person, who may not love talking directly about yourself but who will share a sliver of same nonetheless.

27 Apr This entry was published on April 27, 2005 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Soapboxing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.