As over-fiftysomethings and journalists who have written for publication for several decades, my friend Pat, aka Commonweeder, and I often talk about blogging, over-sharing, and just where the boundaries should be between the personal and the public.

A couple of sites we end up talking about are Heather Armstrong's  Dooce,  and Brazen Careerist, by career author and entrepreneur Penelope Trunk. Both are very successful sites, with lots of commenters who are engaged with the authors and their personal lives: Armstrong's an edgy mom, and Trunk is balancing career, a new company and single motherhood. 

That's the beauty of blogs, that you connect and engage with people who you will probably never meet. As journalists, Pat and I were used to writing under different levels of editors for large, but also largely anonymous audiences. These writers write directly, and very intimately, to their audiences.  

Sometimes you wonder about the cost of so much self-revelation.

I've used Trunk's career advice columns and book in my career workshops, and my students have found her advice to be quite useful.

But reading Trunk's blog can be an exercise in cringe-resistance; she offers some excellent advice on some days, but on others she puts herself out there waaay more than most of us might ever consider. She's a prolific writer and provocateur; readers have received regular updates on the breakup of her marriage (sometimes with comments from the ex), fights with her recent boyfriend, and am I recalling correctly that she Tweeted from a bikini waxing session?

And it all seems to be part of what we now call "building the brand."  The last time I checked her blog she had analyzed her life and work problems and diagnosed herself to be, not a narcissist, but a victim of Asperger's Syndrome. This has led to a whole new discussion.

It's not clear that she's received a medical diagnosis, but she's blogging about Asperger's in the workplace, and again, her readers are right in there with her, many looking for symptoms in themselves.

Last month, she broke new ground by Tweeting her miscarriage. In today's media world, this brought her a lot of attention.  Was this a career move or something out of her control?

It seems that  part of her intention was to generate discussion of miscarriages in the workplace and draw attention to the three-week waiting period for an abortion in her state of Wisconsin. Which actually is pretty alarming. But, gee, there might have been a different way to point that out.

So the intensely personal becomes totally public. Right away. If I were reading a memoir, written with the insight and clarity that time can give a person, maybe it would feel different. But this episode just feels a bit weird and sad, a little like watching that couple on tv with all the kids who just broke up. You just want to protect them from themselves and change the channel.

                                                                  -- B.J. Roche