The blogosphere is a funny place. In everyday interaction eavesdropping is generally frowned upon, but on blogs it's practically encouraged. You're free to read about anyone's lives, loves, losses, and random musings, whether they know you or not.
What's more, you often get to know people more quickly and intimately than you could through normal conversation. In face to face interaction, you can't just walk up to a stranger and ask about their hopes and dreams. We don't generally feel comfortable revealing that kind of stuff to people we've never met. You have to wade through several layers of smalltalk about hometowns, college majors, hobbies, etc., before you find out what really makes them tick.
In the blogosphere, though, the first day you encounter a blog you can read for fifteen minutes and get a pretty clear idea about what the auther is like, what interests them, what they value. And if you like them, you're free to visit as often as you like and participate in their conversations. Jane Austen might be appalled at the social anarchy, but I love it.
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6 comments:
I love that you used the phrase "social anarchy."
I've become very aware of this lately too. The reason being that part of my "justification" for my time spent blogging has been that it serves a journal. But some days, there are things I need to get out, like I would in a journal, that wouldn't be too smart to blog about. Husband issues, family issues, hurt feelings. I've lately learned that several people were reading my blog and I had no idea, because they weren't commenting.
Also, with this open, ongoing conversation, you run the risk of unwittingly offending people. Case in point: I posted earlier in the week about pet peeves. Well, the whole point of a pet peeve is that this thing that totally bugs you doesn't really bother other people. I certainly don't expect other people to share my quirks of personality or taste. I was hoping the blog would generate traffic about other pet peeves and we'd all have a good laugh and find a few kindred nutcases. I'd said something about chicken hair and flip flops at church being an eternal source of annoyance. Somebody I didn't know, and who has never commented on my blog before, writes back and says, "Would your rather they didn't come to church?"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No! Of course not. When I get talking about things that bug me, I just get a little snarky. And its my blog! Am I not entitled to have opinions on it? Suddenly I felt terrible that I've offended some random stranger out in cyberspace. (Hah! Not unlike Caitlin and her young marriage comments last week, eh?) Anyway, I clicked on the link to her blogs, but this blogger has created her space to not allow comments from anyone who is not invited.
What?????
I felt totally cheated; like she has broken some rule of the conversation. She can say what she thinks, but doesn't have to listen to what others say about HER opinions? Hm . . . maybe I'll add that to my new list of pet peeves.
I agree that I love the social anarchy, but I think I will watch my kids' myspace and blogger accounts (which they will no doubt have one day) like a mother bear protecting her cubs.
I'm sorry I always leave a post on your comments. I vow to keep it to ONE sentence next time.
Apparently, great minds think alike. I wrote something of a similar nature in my last post...that it is helpful to have a blog to vent things you wouldn't feel comfortable venting in person because it requires the appropriate "mood," since sometimes, it is helpful merely to take something out of our heads and really look at it.
Though I can relate to STM in the fact that there is an interesting dynamic that occurs with an online, public journal. I often wonder whether I hedge what I am saying because I know that other people are reading it. Knowing that others read it does make me feel a bit of pressure to write eloquently--only sometimes accomplished anyway...But still, it is such a nice release.
I love that your comments on my blog often become posts on your own blog. And they're way more thought-provoking and insightful than any of the junk I write.
*Stomps foot*
Bother.
(Hahaha! No, really. I love it. And you. You're grand, Kim. Just grand.)
Got to say I feel like Winnie the Pooh most the time. Maybe a thought or two... nothing really serious. That is why Kim my friend is the thinker and I just nod my head and smile while that's nice piglet. *snickers*
STM, you'll never hear me complaining about long comments on my blog. I already wrote what I think in the post - now the point of a comment section is for everyone else to chime in. :)
I agree that I'm a little baffled by people who create blogs and then don't enable people to view them. I have a couple cousins who do this, and I assume it's because they just want family and friends reading their thoughts rather than total strangers (which I can understand).
However, some of my most faithful and interesting readers have turned out to be family friends, distant in-laws, and friends of friends of friends who I'd never dream would want an invitation to read my random musings. I'm so glad they found their way here, and I wouldn't want to prevent anyone else like them from joining the party.
Not sure whether I'm egalitarian or narcissistic. ;)
SLV, I try to keep up both my journal and my blog (things that are too personal, too mundane, or too potentially offensive for the blog go in the journal), but even when I paste something from one to the other I find that I tinker with the writing style before I publish. However, while you try to write more eloquently on your blog, I find I make my blog posts more conversational than my journal entries. Hard to believe, I know, considering my penchant for using terms like "social anarchy" and "narcissistic."
Ms. McGee, you're grand, too. Hope you had a happy birfday.
And "Winnie the Pooh," it's always a pleasure to have you stop by for a bit of honey.
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