The Mean and Opinionated Writer

I was cornered the other day by one of my weekly blog readers who had pointed out my very opinionated style of writing. I responded, with what I thought was the obvious, and mentioned that it was a blog and not some national or world news organization that was solely there to present unbiased facts. I felt as if I didn’t understand her concern. She had told me, in so many words, that my blog posts were just putting people down.

I have to admit that my very sarcastic and dark sense of humor does make me sound like I’m being mean at times, and maybe I just am. But when she brought up the example of my last post about Yoga, I didn’t quite get why she was saying that my words were in any way mean.

I referred back to an article that spoke about how Yoga was a religious practice associated with Hinduism and how Christians should either abstain from participating or practice “Christian Yoga” instead. I responded by saying that I just found it hilarious and continued on by explaining what yoga was really about with the quote, “It is an outrageous thing to say—yoga is not a religion but a spiritual discipline,” said Vanda Vanni, of the Italian Yoga Association to the Daily Mail. “It is about freedom and a search to find one’s inner self. It does not touch religion and has nothing to do with Satanic sects nor does it encourage people to join them”

I assumed that I presented enough information from all of my previous posts about yoga, while linking back to one of them, for my readers to understand where my stance was coming from. Yes, I did editorialize and state my opinion with my usual sarcastic quips, but I assumed that I could do so on my own blog.

Would opinionated blogging on WordPress really prevent me from getting another job as a journalist? Has it prevented me from getting a job as a journalist in the past? I have no idea. I try my best in every job that I do, and I keep non-editorialized pieces of work to present to potential employees when the time comes. I have gotten jobs and internships before, but now I wonder if that’s because they have never actually found my blog and assume that I have never editorialized in my life.

I suppose being a good writer and journalist is more than just being able to apply proper communication skills with an audience. Maybe it was about one’s ability to keep your personal thoughts and opinions offline in an age when everyone is jumping at the chance to sell their soul on social media, and I suppose that is something to think about as I write my next opinionated post on my personal blog.