I think I was trying to kiss up. Written communication requires a certain precision. Human language has nearly evolved to the point where we can dispense with spoken conversation and go entirely online. I guess I have a pseudo-intellectual unconscious. Of course most of our discourse is spent explaining our own environment.
Personal pages are an interesting corollary.
This very value judgement is often made among those who keep pages of both types. Linkers somehow have more credibility. I'm going to say outright that I reject this value judgement from my own experience. It is when I'm at my most personal when my audience is most engaged. Rather than a sense of voyeurism, what they've told me is that by relating my own life, they think seriously about theirs.