As of 6:15 p.m., I am officially living vicariously thru my blog (by blogxy, if you will). For that was the exact moment I uttered the words "You know, I blogged about that very subject a few days / weeks / months ago!" for the eighteenth time that day. Whether my dinner companion remains a friend or not is an open question; I'll let you know. (I've certainly done all I can to convince her that meaningful interaction with me does not require my physical presence.) I've been hanging around my virtual friends quit a bit lately--none of whom I have met nor have the faintest idea about, really--and now I have begun to mistake my one-sided diatribes for dialog and meaningful interaction. What's next? Blog sex (blex)(not to be confused with blech)? (We'll leave that to Lizzie and CS ;-)
Wow. Y'all are getting off with a single paragraph. Consider this a warning.
19 comments:
CS and Lizzie just 'blicker'.
Haha! This could get out of hand!
I did have this conversation with another blogger, that I do know personally, about whether we actually 'knew' these other bloggers. I say that we only know what they want us to know. And vice versa.
Yeah. And I think the ones we find endearing, me anyway, are those who make us think we kinda know them. And maybe we do. But you get so much more information from a short face to face chat than you do from a week's worth of comments and postings. So then, the time it takes to get a picture of a fellow blogger makes us think we've got some kind of history together. And so we do, I guess.
I wonder if I'll ever meet any of my blog buddies (bluddies)?
Of course, there are those I read just because I like their writing.
I said "I blogged about that!" to another mother at the school yesterday. She looked at me like I said, "On my planet, which is named Ixtapulcomatl, we put rocket oil on our mashed potatoes."
Haaaaaaa!
I find myself blurting out about the blog on the airplane at times, not realizing that 1) most pilots (most people, I guess) have no idea what a blog is, and 2) they are not the people I want to encourage to read my blog anyway (unless I want to get on some secret watch list for people deemed alien to the Pilot Way). But usually my slip-up is followed by a don't ask / don't tell policy.
It's funny, I've never mentioned my blog in conversation to anyone I was face-to-face with. Never. I've thought about it and realized they're not going to have any idea what I'm talking about. And if they do, even worse, they might ask me for the address. Meanwhile if someone wanted to find it, it's not too difficult with Google.
The person I was having dinner with knows of my blog and has read it from time to time. I don't keep it a secret, but I'm selective in who I tell. But anybody googling me would quickly find it.
I am sure this is the subject of many blogs, and even a few serious studies, but I tend to disagree with the idea that we are more truthful with people, or that you can know more from people, that we see in real life.
How many people are guarded and closed while talking to friends, even those they have known for some time? And how many people reflect their personality more opnely through their writing?
For that matter, how many have a blog personality and a real life personality, and which one of those more closely resembles that inner person?
Personally, I am open about everything to everyone, blog or person. It sort of is my greatest quality AND the most annoying thing about me. But I have spent enough time around writers to tend to think they are "more real" when they are writing, and less real when they "have" to interact with people.
Of course, I could go on and on (and I have, for a thesis) on reality vs. story truth, but this isn't my space to do so.
Damn great post, though. Metablogging: great topic.
Joshua
Joshua--
"I tend to disagree with the idea that we are more truthful with people, or that you can know more from people, that we see in real life."
I gotta agree with that. We are very good at keeping secrets and at concealing ourselves to others in person; and I do think that many of us write to give voice to a part of ourselves that does not get out in public.
Like you, I tend to be an open book. I will happily discuss things with nearly anyone that I think people tend to keep close to their vests. It just seems easiest to me to live without secrets, to take a straight line to whatever destination. I'm not sure where this comes from, since it is not my family's way (so maybe it stems from rebellion / reaction).
I don't think of myself as a capital-W Writer, so I wonder what my friends think about the me that emerges on this blog versus the me they know personally?
How's THAT for self-absorbed? ;-)
you write, you're a writer.
I know how trite that is, but after spending the last seven years with the college set "writer" elitists, I think I am done with the distinction that you must be published to be a writer.
I think I probably will post some ideas about story truth vs. reality, just to clarify the position a bit. I am not sure, totally, which is more "real", but at least a discussion could be made.
I just had a conversation about this over email with another blogger today. I was telling her how I spend more time with my virtual friends than my real friends. The one person that knows me in real life and reads my blog has actually started calling me Lizzie. It's a little disconcerting. It's also disconcerting how many times I start a sentence with "So, I saw on this blog..."
But, and maybe this will sound pathetic, but I think the interaction I have with people over a blog is meaningful. It's not meaningful in the way that real life interaction is, but it is so in its own way. A month or so ago when I was feeling really down, there were days when you guys on the blog really cheered me up. That counts for something, right?
Absolutely.
I think I'm feeling a bit self-conscious with Susan gone that, after seven years in Appleton, when she's not around I spend my days, hours and hours, sitting at my kitchen counter typing on the computer. I don't even know anyone to hang out with. So it's not that blog friends aren't real friends, it's that I seem to have lost the knack for actually meeting people. My lifestyle is itinerant to such a degree that I feel unable to really invest anywhere since god knows when I'll be back again. Join a band? Try out for a local theatre production? Hook up with a motorcycle club? It just seems pointless when I'm regularly gone from 1-2 weeks at a pop. My blog buddies, on the other hand, go with me everywhere.
I only felt that, with my friend with whom I had dinner, I was something less than living in the present because I kept referring to what I had written on my blog. She reads the blog, and I was making these references not to drum up traffic, but to caution her that what seemed on my part original and well thought out in our conversation had in fact been worked out in my mind somewhere else.
I make fun of it, I guess, but I've actually really enjoyed the whole blogging experience.
I've enjoyed blogging and having an outlet for my views. My blog was never a diary because I've never really kept one. The only two people who read it regularly were a good friend and, bless his heart, CS. But with my husband moving ahead of us and being apart for a few weeks; my commenting on blogs really escalated from one to many. I usually blog on the couch next to my husband, so I won't consider it a problem unless I'm not out meeting new friends because of it.
I do agree that some people may be more real online. We get to talk to people without worrying about what we're wearing and all that other stuff. But I'm also aware that some people may not be what they seem. But, you deal with that in real life also.
Sorry to ramble on your blog.
Ramble away! Good stuff.
(Though I'll always feel like a pretender until I get the triple-digit comments of Queen Lizzie! ;-)
You should find some soldier to argue with then. ;-)
Southie and I were at work the other day and we were talking about something on my blog. And I was like, "Oh and Lizzie's back from Haiti!" which I was probably a little too happy about. We were both laughing at how we talked about lizzie like we actually know.
Yeah, I know. I actually wonder about things with bloggers as I would with people I know personally. It doesn't have to be worse or lesser somehow, but it's surely different!
Blex! Ha ha! I love it. Great word.
Post a Comment