I love pulling up bloglines and seeing all the new posts sitting there waiting for me to read them. And ok, I admit it, I rarely leave comments. It's stupid of me really because I LOVE it when others comment on my blog and it's not like I'm EVER without an opinion. But for some reason I rarely comment. Lately I've been reading them all on my phone, which does give me something of an excuse since it's so stinking annoying to leave a comment from my phone, but that has only been for the last month or so, so even though it's totally true it doesn't hold up too well. I mean I didn't do so well leaving comments BEFORE I switched to the phone reading.
As much as I get a thrill reading about everyone's lives it does have it's downsides too. I have very few close friends in real life. The list of people I could just pick up the phone and call to say "Hey, I'm bored lets go to the movies or something" is tiny. Of course even if the list was bigger the chances of actually getting to go to a movie when we all have kids that tie us to our houses is next to nothing, but that really isn't the point of this rambling post. Online however, I have SO many friends. Now they may not know they are my friend or anything, but they are.
There's one blog in particular that I love. It's not like she has sage advise or in depth discussions on the meaning of life or anything, she just talks about family and husbands and kids and stuff, but she does it in a way that is so stinking funny! I read her posts and laugh and think "man I wish I could write like that". Which stinks because she's not even trying to be an awesome writer, she just is one. I LOVE reading her blog.
So whats so bad about that right? Well I also know this woman in real life. Like know her name and see her around, but have never been to her home and I don't think she's ever been to mine. One of those kind of friends...an acquaintance. And yet due to reading her blog I've found myself walking up to her on multiple occasions and saying something quippy or interesting. I expect her to react to the awesome-ness that is me and we'll smile like best friends do with an inside joke, but that doesn't happen. Instead I get that look that you sometimes see women give other women. You know the one where they are thinking "How do you keep a crazy person calm, do you look at their eyes or look away?" I can totally tell that is what she's thinking as
she laughs nervously shoving her kid behind her as she backs slowly away from me. Why can't people realize they are simply my blog best friend? Of course if I try to explain to them that they are my best friend but don't know it they look at me like I'm even crazier, kinda like when I tell people I'm actually famous and no one has realized it yet.
Of course I keep reading blogs and holding out hope for all my blog best friends. But what do I know? I still think I'm famous and the world in general just hasn't figured it out yet. But they will, oh one day, they will.
2 comments:
I recently read a book, _Click_ by Bill Tancer, and it's all about the behavior of people when they're online. That's information he has special access to (in aggregate), and one of the things he talks about is social participation in Web 2.0 stuff (blogs, social networks, YouTube, all of that).
They've got a standard distribution that has proven true time and time again -- that 90% of the people on the web are lurkers. Only 2% of the people visiting these sites are generating any real content (whether writing a blog, or posting a new video to YouTube). 8% of visitors participate a little bit, leaving comments or responding to forum threads, and the other 90% only ever read, and then move on.
After reading that, I decided I wanted to be in the 8%, at the very least, so I've been trying to leave comments more regularly, wherever I can find something to say. You made that easy, with this post. Heh.
I understand your feelings about blog friends, too, though. I've talked about Courtney on my blog a lot lately (as you've noticed), and that started out the same way. We exchanged a couple comments online somehow, and then I went and read her whole blog (without leaving a single comment), and by the time I was done with that, I felt like we were friends.
Luckily, we had enough in common (both of us crazy writers), that I was able to tell her up-front what had happened, and she just took it as a compliment. I don't know how well that could work in your case, but I certainly lucked out.
Long comment, Aaron! Wow.
I like this post, Shannon. It's creative and interesting. Keep writing entries like that and I will comment.
From one of your real-life best buds! Love you.
Post a Comment