During a lesson based on blog entries students had selected from Etena Sacca-vajjena, a student commented that one of the elements that characterizes my author’s voice is that I am so personal in my writing. A few days later, I posted an image in Facebook of my front porch with the comment, “Have spent much of the afternoon working on the front porch enjoying the Puerto Rican’s attempt at making fall festive” to which a friend queried, “Does the Puerto Rican have a name?”

In response to my student, I agreed that most of my postings in Etena Sacca-vajjena are very personal in that they typically incorporate a specific incident that happened to me or one that I have observed. I then take that incident and weave it into a broader narrative about education. Yet, I pointed out, even though my writing is very personal, individuals who read Etena Sacca-vajjena know very little about my private life besides that I share it with the Puerto Rican and our little dogs.

Digging a bit deeper by consulting my personal website, people can learn that the Puerto Rican and I also have five parakeets, two oscars, one turtle, and multiple goldfish and that I enjoy genealogical research, reading, working in my garden, photography, artwork, and collecting Buddhist iconography. But even here, specifics from my private life to support these general statements are missing. While I provide personal details to support my professional experience and writing, I choose not to share my private life too publicly.

When my friend of 30 years asked if the Puerto Rican had a name, I responded that he does but that his name is not going to appear in my writing. Even on Facebook, sharing my partner’s name is more personal than I care to be about my private life.

In a digital age, I have no illusion as to the extent to which we lack the privacy and expectations of privacy that individuals had when I was a youth. Yet, I know that we are responsible for deciding about how we choose to present ourselves on-line as well as to the extent we share our private lives in our writing. Not all of us are going to make the same decisions—nor do we need to do so. But what I try to instill in my students is that we should be deliberative in our sharing; that we should consider the consequences of what we share both in terms of ourselves and others.

I incorporate Dr. Julia A. Berg’s stories into my first semester composition course. As with my writing, Dr. Berg begins with specific incidents which she weaves into broader narratives. The difference is that her incidents come from her private life. She writes about her husband and her children and her friends and her cancer and so forth. However, in doing so, she is careful not to violate the privacy of the individuals about whom she writes. For example, in “Grading Our Friends,” we learn about Dr. Berg and her values but learn nothing about the woman who sparked the story.

As writers of blogs or Facebook posts, we have responsibilities not only to ourselves, but also to the individuals about whom we write. Even if I wanted to write about the more private aspects of my life, I do not have the right to publish details about the Puerto Rican’s private life—even those aspects of his private life that we share. Knowing about the little dogs is about as personal as it gets.

In case anyone wonders, “No, you are not going to find the Puerto Rican on Facebook.”

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption: Dr. Julia A. Berg when she was about the age of most of my students.