A conversation with someone got me thinking about just how personal your internet bookmarks are. If you were asked to send them all to someone, how would you feel about that?
Ours, for the most part, are very boring – I’ve got loads of links to sites about internet design, CSS, information architecture, good writing and fonts. Stuart’s got loads of links to geek sites. I’m perfectly prepared to share those, although I’m sure they’d bore someone to tears.
But I’m not sure how I’d feel about letting out links to the things I bookmark as part of my personal life. OK, it’s just web magazines, or maybe things I’ve bookmarked when I’ve been researching places for possible holidays, but they say a lot about who I am and what I feel.
It reminds me of when I was working on my grandfather’s PC following his death. He’d stored details of his bank accounts and savings on the computer. At the time my family weren’t particularly computer literate, so I went in to get the details out. Even though I was upset, I found it so interesting to look at how his mind had worked when he set up a particular file structure, or saved a particular article from the internet. Even though he wasn’t there, he was sharing such a personal part of himself with me.
So, do I share my bookmarks with my friends? Of course I should. Just let me check what’s in there first…