Had an illuminating discussion with my brother while in CA over the weekend about my weblog. He knew I had a web site, sort of, with only the vaguest idea of what that even was. (He’s an attorney and quite a bit smarter than me, but still had to take the mandatory “Introduction to E-mail” class at his office three times.) Then I explained that it’s sort of like an online journal, with new entries pushing older ones to the bottom. Many people use them as personal diaries, although I don’t, and you can get to know people pretty well through their daily writings, I told him. He found this not only strange but sort of perverse.
“Well, if you had a friend who kept up one of these sites, wouldn’t it be interesting to read?” I said.
“I would never have a friend who did that,” he said, with a mix of incredulity and distaste.
I realized that because so much of my life and work revolves around computers, it blinds me to the fact that for the general population, an ATM machine is about as close as they will come to a computer in their daily lives. This isn’t good or bad, just different. But I wouldn’t give up what I’ve gained from computers and the web for anything.
my wife can’t comprehend why i blog. and i can’t explain it to her without sounding flaky. i try not to think about it too much. although today, i was thinking about it in sort of a roundabout way, thinking how, despite all the lame things you come across, how many well-written posts you find, how many people there are who can write well, and how, when i was fiction editor of a small magazine, i never in 6 months saw as much good material as i see every day on my rounds. this totally undermines the old way things got published.
while i understand that “it takes all kinds” I still don’t get the kind of tone of “i would never have a friend who did THAT” as if it were decapitating little children or something…. i mean, “not my cup of tea” is cool..but., i mean, i can understand folks who DONT blog, without judging them…
It’s because the ‘Net is a dark dungeon of pedophiles and freaks!
Seriously, I read this sensationalist crap article in the NYT of all places about this woman’s son becoming prey for “Internet pedophiles” (what does that mean? are they different from just regular pedophiles?).
Of course, she blamed the ‘Net, but everything in the article indicated (to me, at least) that her son (16 years old) was GAY and using the ‘Net to hook up with older men.
I can’t stand that kind of thing. The term “Internet pedophiles” is grossly misleading. It creates an image of a different, more dangerous kind of pedophile, when in reality, they’re just pedophiles who use the ‘Net to find children. Is it really any worse than pedophiles who use the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church to gain contact with children? In actuality, it’s less dangerous because 1) parents can moniter their children’s activity on the ‘Net, 2) they might be hundreds of miles away, and 3) they’re strangers unlike a trusted Boy Scout leader or priest.
At any rate, 16 years old is a little too old to count as “pedophilia” in my book.
Hi, I’m Suey and I’m about to ramble – and possibly rant a bit, so I thought you ought to have some warning at least.
I followed a link from Feral Living to the Ageless Project and thought I would look at some sites of people the same age as me. You’re one of the closest, so here I am. And the first entry of yours that I come to comment in, Miguel is here before me. I took that as a spooky omen (otherwise known as a coincidence)
None of my family can understand my passion for weblogging. They all seem to look at me as though I were suddenly transmogrified into a small child or, more accurately, a small alien child. They all have the same “Net is bad for you/ unhealthy/ full of porn/ just for shopping/ just for kids/ boring” attitude. And they all feel qualified to expound on its dangers/ shortcomings/ dullness without having anything much to base it upon. I try to point them in the direction of creative and interesting minds but it never gets me anywhere. As far as I can tell, they only ever read my blog, as straying too far off the path and into the woods is dangerous. Irritatingly, because my family actually do read my weblog, I have to keep it very tame and extremely carefully worded, so as not to upset or scandalise anyone. I often wish I hadn’t told any of them about it in the first place, as it doesn’t do either them or me any good at all. I should start another one, anonymously, and spew up a bit of brain-silt – I feel all festery.
This post seems to have touched a nerve. I think it’s fascinating when people who write weblogs reflect on why they do it, and all the attendant topics like perception, identity, etc.
In fairness to my brother, I think he was just reacting to how foreign the whole weblog (and internet, for that matter) concept was to him. I don’t think he considers me a freak or anything – at least not any more than he did before. 🙂