You don’t have to wait until you are famous in your field or a rich celebrity to chronicle your life. In fact, more and more individuals are writing their autobiography , or the biography of their family, as a way to better understand themselves and their place in the world. These types of biography are not about proving how important or significant the subject is, but rather a way to gain deeper insight into a life or a web of relationships.
The internet age has made it easier than ever to create a biography or autobiography. There are websites and blog templates that anyone with a computer can use to build their own page in a matter of minutes. This gives you a place to put your autobiography where you can share it with friends and family or, if you feel confident enough, with the entire world. Some sites will even give you the option of keeping a blog completely private so that only you can read it.
Perhaps one of the best features of the web is the ability to utilize multiple forms of media in crafting a biographical site or blog. For example, many publishing sites have tie-ins with photo sharing or video sites. This means that you can take the photos of important milestones that you’ve stored on flickr and link them directly to your web bio. Likewise, you can embed video clips from sharing sites like vimeo or youtube as well as music files. If you’ve stored artwork, slideshows, or any other type of media, it should be a snap to include it as a way to enhance your life story.
When crafting such an online bio, you want to take into consideration just who will have access to the contents and what purpose the document might serve. Giving your children or grandchilden insight into what it was like to grow up in a past era is a great motivation. So is sharing the story of how you and your spouse met and fell in love. Some family biographies serve as a testament and memorial to family members who have passed away. These types of bios will have a very different tone than business or professional ones. They will also have different content.
If you feel you might use your web bio as a way of promoting yourself to future employers or even political life, then you want to be doubly careful as to what content and media you share. Remember, if you’re a real estate guy like Daniel Drimmer , you need the bio to instill confidence in potential clients or tenants. You would most likely emphasize your business qualifications and professional accomplishments and include photos and videos that support that image.
Whatever the purpose, creating a web bio can be a fun way to look back at your life to date and give you an excuse to stroll down memory lane and sort through all those old photos. Have fun!
image courtesy creative commons license