these relationships tend to be skewed and one-sided, you feeling a connection with me from reading my blog regularly, but, i've never heard of you, my only knowledge of you is the ip address you left in my server logs. the voyeuristic relationship. perhaps, you sent me email once. if i replied, we've become acquaintances, people you'd meet on the street and say hi to (if there were a main street on the web). but, this can still be one-sided. you, from reading my blog, may think of me as your friend because you know me so well, whereas i barely know you.

then there's the true web friendships, where you exchange emails and establish a joint relationship. you then read someone's blog from a different viewpoint, you're keeping track of a friend's life. you'll send them an email if you want to talk. and maybe, someday, you'll meet them in meatspace.

all this is probably not new to anyone, what prompted me to start writing about it, is the way these interactions can affect each of us so much. we hold our conversations on these pages, and if we're vicious, it's the same as being vicious to a person's face. what's worse, is that words don't convey tone. if i'm being cynical, how do you know? you make think i'm serious. but, at the same time as they affect us, we can be so callous about them.

i don't know where i'm going with this, maybe i'm just too sensitive to people being hurt by others comments. but, at least part of it is working out a seeming paradox that has been bothering me for a few weeks. how can i, who can count my meatspace friends on 2 hands, and don't mind that, feel so close to so many people i've never met. i've certainly got more people i consider friends, online than off. which got me thinking about how, for a while now, i've been living most of my life online, at least 10 hours a day. online stuff is more important than most stuff in my meatspace life. so, where does that leave me? i don't know. but, at least i've worked out more of what was bothering me. so where was i?

ah. i know where i was going. weblogs have developed into a method of communication, i may not email neale, but i will hold a conversation with him in my blog (i'm waiting for that email, neale), and because of this, the same rules of conduct that developed in order to keep mailing lists polite should be used by weblogs. think before you type and ask yourself how you'd feel if someone wrote that about you.

copyright 1997-2000, by brig.