It is amazing how much we give away of ourselves these days, often for likes and hearts. I know that isn't necessarily what you were doing with your essays, but that is what many of us have been conditioned to accept- nothing for something.
Hive answers several content questions and while there is a bit of a way to go to get the ducks in row, we are heading there.
Finally, for me: I can write exactly what I choose. Again, for better or worse.
Some people are scared of the immutability, as if what they write anywhere else is not permanent. People hide themselves as if they are actually hidden.
A friend of mine from high school told me a story about a rabbit with Myxomatosis that had run away from him and thought it was hidden. It was blind from the disease and he shot it with his shotgun from point blank range.
Hidden on the internet is only at the surface layer. We are hidden from each other, not from those who have our data.