Monday, October 03, 2011

Beware of Blogging! :^)

For a long time and sometimes even now, I am cautioned to be cautious about what I reveal and share on my blog. Do you hear cautionary advice too? To be careful because you don't really know a person if you haven't actually met her or him? Or that there are lurkers out there ready to steal your identity or worse?

Yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon with three women I met from blogging who are now real friends in the real world. I don't think about who I can trust and who I can't anymore and I'll bet you don't either. We know who is the real deal and who isn't. Plus, I don't mind taking my time before I privately or publicly acknowledge familiarity has become true blue affection.

Anyway, in my earlier days of blogging, when I couldn't for the life of me convince the non-bloggers in my life of the fantastic people/visitors/friends I had met, I wrote this silly little Twilight Zone pilot about blogging. tada:

The Blogger

They'll track you down in your own backyard--pirates who have stalked you from another continent,following your weekend restaurants and family reunions.

They'll break in through the basement on Sunday night and tie you to the bedpost while they open drawers and carry your television into the rented van.

They'll use your credit cards, cash your bank accounts, and make a few smooth moves so your hairstyle is theirs.

All because you have posted your entire life on the internet.

Because your e-mails and blogs have found their way to Mad Max in Memphis and a 68 year old trucker in Kalamazoo.

They'll open your refrigerator and pull out the special mozzarella from the second shelf rear

And marvel at the Indian place mats with the Mexican colors.

Then pull the red rickety chair up to the little round table, commenting, by the way, that your dining room looks exactly like you described it.

That will be bad enough.

But when they ask you to sit down and break bread--one friend to another--or carry the suitcase to the familiar guestroom, when that happens, I will say the same words with great syllabic pronunciation and emphasis.

I will lecture and cajole and implore and direct while your furniture is carried out the back door.

And you--you will politely and impatiently wait until the commotion dies down so you can get on-line and share this fascinating adrenalin-shaking event.

"Dear friends," you will say to your pals online, "You won't believe who I met today!"

:^)

23 comments:

  1. Now that is strange. And sad.
    And, frankly, to the point.

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  2. ah...truly said... sometimes one get good friends on the blogs...and sometimes when one get hateful people...thats how it is i think :)

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  3. I have a very hard time explaining blogging in general (to people who don't). lol! I have a theory that since actual reading is involved when we visit blogs, we are each of us, like books, and so people that don't like our kind of books quickly stop reading us. People that continue to read and visit are more kindred spirits. I wonder what kind of book that makes me...:)) xox!! Pam

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  4. I'm with Pam..I dont have any "face to face" friends that blog...and when I talk about it they start getting this glazed look...I gave up trying to explain it though.I feel blessed to have made and met so many wonderful people..and thats that!( :
    Hugs friend,Cat

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  5. Good many people here, we have such a beautiful corner in the world here. I'm so pleased You here and share your life! :)

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  6. I remember this :)

    I love that you and I have that gut feeling of who we can trust.♥

    I'm so happy to be your real life pal!

    xoxo
    Lo♥

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  7. glad you all could get together on sunday. wish i had gone too.

    sometimes i think if someone stole some of my possessions they'd be doing me a favour. relieving me from the burden. of course they are a joy too, but i need to downsize. i feel my possessions are keeping me from something. whatever.

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  8. My friend's husband calls her blogger peeps "imaginary friends." My husband is extremely skeptical and protective. He thinks I am naive, which is often true. However after I went to meet one of my blog buds last year, he has released his grip on the notion that none are who they claim to be.

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  9. rob, but not a very serious point :^)

    muhammad, i've had one heartbreak and many joys

    pam, i won't forget this theory of yours! how true! and yet, i also find there is something unexplainable that draws me to certain bloggers.

    yes cat, real friends :^) ♥

    julie, i feel the same. ♥

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  10. lo, your surely are my real life pal, as in, one of my best friends!

    suki, this reminds me of a story told by hugh prather. he said he was in a bar and a woman came in and said she had lost everything in a fire. he said what was most amazing what that almost everyone pretty much envied her.

    annie, i've met a number of bloggers and some i truly love and hope to love forever. i've had one very painful relationship from the blogs but though i'm reluctant and perhaps stupid to say this, i think it was a relationship of destiny. xoxo

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  11. I am still not sure about trusting people altogether! They continue to surprise me with their nastiness, that's why I generally keep people at arm's length! Love the header!

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  12. I can honestly say I've never had a troll or rude commenter on the blog. Some have been a bit weird, follower fishers or spammers but those I've come to know (and some I've met) hold places in my heart that no others do. By the time you do actually meet, you know these people so well it's like sitting in a comfy chair. Although I have to confess not everything goes up on the blog. Work and love .. strickly edited. I hope to bring my backpack one of these days, before I need a wheelchair and a catheter! MWAH

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  13. Very few in my "real" life understand why I blog, or how I can genuinely feel close to people I've met through blogging. But I do. It does take me quite a while to really trust anyone, though, here or in the rest of my life. Once bitten, and all that.

    I could definitely see your description of "blogger-beware" as an episode of The Twilight Zone. It would have been a good one.
    :0)
    (Funny, this is the second time in less than an hour where I've commented on a post that made a reference to that wonderful old show!)

    Sending you lots and lots of pink zinnia love,
    xoxoxo

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  14. chuckle....darlin how i'd love...just loooovee to meet some of my regular readers in 'real life'!....but hey...who knows what the future will bring...when are you travellin over to this side of the globe!!!

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  15. jos, i have to disagree with you this one time. you know you can trust lo and marianne and some many others, including, i hope, me!

    honey hells, you certainly hold a place in my heart like no other! i would cross the ocean for you, i would.
    not even a backpack needed: i'll supply everything! thrilling to think about. ♥

    angela, once bitten indeed. i am a more cautious person these days, in and out of the blogs, but i still choose love every time. it's great to see you here, my dear twin. i've missed you. xo

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  16. hello sag!

    chrisy, my dear honey hells baino is on your side of the pond, so you never know :^)

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  17. Vigorously nodding my head in agreement!

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  18. Clever, and I am glad that for the most part, peoples' initial fears have not played out in real life. I know only one blogger who had a true horror story: a dangerous stalker. She quit blogging for a year and now has a really buttoned-down anonymous blog.

    It's good to be aware to negative possibilities, I guess, while being grateful for so many positive outcomes from blogging. :)

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  19. it's alot to think about. i guess there are risks in everything. i think i would be more worried for face book, if i did that.
    i do hope you have a good weekend there. and that it involves a bit of writing, and mischief.
    xxx

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  20. My experience with friendship through blogging has been overwhelmingly good. You do just know
    . I think people reveal themselves in a blog so that who they are and whether you are like-minded is clear. If it were not for the blog world, for instance, I would not have you as a real-life friend. I'm grateful. ♥

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  21. KJ I have seen you post on Annie's site but never had the chance to check out your's untill today, funny. I like.

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  22. So far, every blogger that I follow, that I have met in person is just like they are on their blog. I don't follow one's I don't feel good about...

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