On Friday I explained to my friend what a blog actually is, and what I’ve written about for the last five and half years. We came to the point where I had to ask myself why I practise self-censorship. When I was in Istanbul, I used to utter my political opinion from time to time, esp. during the Gezi Park protests. I used to live in a country that censors all its media, that persecutes journalists – now I live in a country that is known for its freedom of opinion. Now I tend to express my own opinion less and less.
Self-censorship is some kind of protection of course, there definitely is a reason why I don’t write down everything that happens in my life. However, I am more than just travel pictures and fashion posts. I do discuss historical and political topics with my friends, not only beauty products and cats. But for some reason I stopped blogging about those other aspects. I am still not totally sure why. Maybe it is because I am afraid of my readers’ reactions, despite the fact that nobody has ever criticized me for any expression of opinion for the last five and a half years. Maybe it is some sort of flight from real life, which often is difficult enough.
Now that I question myself, I hope to find a way to express my opinions again on the blog. Because soft self-censorship might be a good idea in some ways, but to make use of the freedom of opinion is even more important.
|Watched| Game of Thrones, Germany’s Next Top Model, Der Schuh des Manitu
|Read| The Serpent’s Shadow, The Hidden Oracle
|Listened to| Tarkan, Frank Sinatra
|Done| worked, been a little sick, went out Saturday night
|Eaten| kebab, steak, cherries
|Drunk| water, coffee, white wine, champagne
|Thought| there’s a possibility that this is not just a dream
|Been happy| all Saturday night long, and then when I was home at 4.30 a.m., I got to talk to my friend in South Africa on the phone – perfect timing
|Laughed| with my roommate, who went out after her last exam of the term, and came back home so drunk that she slipped in the bathroom (she didn’t hurt herself)
|Desired| a bit more sleep, but otherwise I was pretty contented
|Bought| a book
|Clicked| two columns in German about how teenage girls are manipulated into waxing and subordinating to boys
© janavar