i have come upon an interesting thought in my own head and whilst talking to people i respect. i have come to realize that perhaps....just perhaps...i should terminate my blog. now before i get too into this concept let me explain.
there is something about blogs that is a little strange. you are excited or upset or just thinking about things and we blurt them out or perhaps you blurt them out on a blog page and there they sit. the only consolation or sharing in your excitement is someone writing a little post but it's such a faceless thing, no real hug just wishes of one.
the problem is that i like blogging. i like writing funny things out, sharing things i'm thinking about, finding funny pictures to download and use etc. etc. But sometimes i wonder.
i have thought about this crazy idea in the past and now i will put it up here. what if us edmonton blogging types got together and did a sort of live blogging type thing. you know? where we actually just planned to meet at a coffee shop and shared in person how we were doing, what we had been thinking, what books we were reading and shared our lives in person.
i have gotten some strange e-mails as of recent that I think were sent because it was easier to say in an e-mail because it can just be sent off and you don't have to see the reaction, you don't have to deal with a face....it is indeed a faceless way of communicating. And so these experiences have set in motion some wheels in my head thinking through this stuff, wondering if e-mailing and blogging is causing our world to pull farther and farther away from real interaction with people, to be avoiders and to create "communities" where we never have to actually look someone in the face and tell them how we're doing. Where we can share our pain and not actually have to admit weakness to someone else because we don't' know who is reading it. There is little interdependence in this e-mailing and blogging world and I worry that I am totally becoming apart of it. Rather than sharing interesting things with people in person i just stick it on my blog and if they want to read it they can, but we never talk about it because it's like blogging is this sort of secret world, "What is said in blog world, stays in blog world."
i have just realized my own tendancies to be much more of an avoider than i used to be, that it's easier to sit down and write it out in an e-mail or talk about it on msn rather than talking in person, and it would be easy to avoid people all together in some ways. then you never have to be actually close, you never have to say those hard to say things in person because you can just stick them in an e-mail or on a website. perhaps this is my own struggle rather than everyone else's but....
Maybe this is just rambling so comments, questions, and concerns are welcome. I mean there are those that blog from far away and it's nice to know how they are doing but then...perhaps we could call them or write them a letter, but then perhaps our worlds are full of too many people to call everyone. I don't know.... just working through something, but i like the idea of live blogging. seems like a good idea in my mind, find a cool coffee shop, sit down with your local blogging friends and talk in person.
The problem is that i like reading people's blogs and responding and writing etc. Anyway....comments?
6 comments:
Glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that getting together with flesh-and-blood people is a preferred method of communication. Blogging is swell, I will have to admit, but over the past year or so, I've found it to be more of a hassle / luxury for those with the time to reflect & conglomerate their thoughts into one nice, often pithy, string of keystrokes. I'm much more fond of the coffee idea, especially when communication carries so much more intricacy and repletion of meaning when seeing the person actually in front of you. However... I often find that I myself am much more articulate when I write than when I talk. Granted, this has much to do with how I was raised, and I can only imagine that—were I given more oportunities to converse/chat/interact face-to-face—I would no doubt improve upon my skills therein. I guess, looking back over the summer, I can already see that such is the case. Anyways, before I start a full-out side-blog entry, I'm gonna have to say: would you be game to chat about it over coffee? ;)
Drop me an e-mail if you'd be up to it.
ℓ.ℯ.
OMG! LOL! WTF!?!
Lis. Come on. I think you're overlooking one thing:
Emoticons.
It's impossible to recreate those cute little guys in one of these so-called "face-to-face" conversations. And without emoticons, where would we be? You know? I don't know if I show my true emotions any other way. This is me, a little sad:
:{
I don't know. I get what you're saying Lisa... and I think I agree...
for me there are other reasons to keep blogging... keep my writing skills up, yeah keep in contact with far-away friends... I think I"ll keep it up for now. :) But coffee sounds like a nice idea.
ps: for me it true, that there are just too many people to keep in contact with, that real life contact just isn't possible. That makes the internet good. But then maybe we just weren't meant to keep in contact with so many people... it's rather draining I find. You just don't have that much love to give away, you know? I dunno...
Interesting thoughts. I think I blog in part because I can't talk to everyone I'd like to about these things, and in part because I think I benefit from writing them out. Of course there's pros and cons to blogging and maybe some people would be better off without it. If in fact blogging decreases the quantity or quality of your communication with others, it's probably not a good thing. On the other hand, as a reader I get to hear from you more than I otherwise would, and I'd be sad to see that end. Unless we actually met for coffee sometimes, which I think we can all agree is a much better form of communication.
One concern I have about coffeeshblogging is that while it could be a more meaningful, personal interaction, it could also easily become a merely social activity. Another is that we'd either have a dozen-ish people, in which case it might be difficult for everyone to participate, or (more likely) we'd have a lot less, in which case a bunch of people would loose contact altogether. Nevertheless I think it's a good idea and worth pursuing further. I'm not one to pass up an excuse for meaningful face-to-face interaction. Keep me posted.
I'm building a coffee shop in my basement. Not just a "pretend one", but for real... complete with barista and cool lighting (oh ya, and awesome tunes). Just have to finish baseboards. 905-1177
I totally agree Lisa and will talk about this with you face to face or at least on the phone.
Who knew 300 km is far...
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