Blogs seem to have two magnetic poles, one attracting friends, the other repulsing relatives.

Robert Brault is an American aphorist known for wry, contemporary observations circulated widely online in the early blog era. This quip reflects the mid-2000s cultural moment when personal blogging blurred private and public life: writers discovered that candid posts could strengthen friendships and build new communities, while simultaneously unsettling family members who felt exposed, criticized, or simply uncomfortable with public disclosure. The “magnetic poles” metaphor captures the social polarization that can occur when one’s personal narrative becomes searchable, shareable, and permanently archived.

The line suggests that blogging exerts opposite social forces at once: it draws in sympathetic readers and like-minded friends, but can push away relatives whose expectations of privacy, loyalty, or decorum differ. By framing this as magnetism, Brault implies the effect is structural rather than purely intentional—once you publish personal thoughts, attraction and repulsion follow naturally. The humor points to a serious tension in self-expression: authenticity can create intimacy with chosen audiences while straining inherited relationships, especially when family dynamics are complicated or when public writing feels like a breach of the unspoken rules of kinship.