Sunday, April 15, 2007

Perfect Strangers

Blogs symbolise a network of perfect strangers very well connected in the virtual world but disconnected in the real world .It is amazing when strangers become friends through blogs, but it is sad when friends become strangers through blogs.Both have happened to me since I started blogging way back in 2003.Was surprised when people who mailed me that blogging is all about honesty and openness became elusive and closed and people who were closed and elusive in real life threw their life wide open in their blogs.Got an interesting comment for one of my eariler posts and I met someone this weekend in Mumbai.

We went for the movie Perfect Strangers ( The movie was about people who meet over the internet but is plain trash other than Halle Berry) and spend one evening talking about Life , Families , Kerala , Relationships , Marriage, Work and what your blog tells about you.Thought it was going to be pretty boring like this but turned out to be more interesting .

Blogging started more as an emotional catharisis and an escape from all those nicetites in professional life which was plain boring. Just realised this weekend that when strangers become friends through blogs and talk as if they know you for ages it is simply worth blogging.

16 comments:

Beena said...

Hmm...true!!!But its rather scary when people probe too much into the blog matter and rip "what you write" through their brutal comments.... :) (no pun intended)

Alex said...

NC,

:)

Yes.

Attribution said...

:D

Wide smile!

Jina said...

pretty boring to interesting...dat sounds interesting..hehe..
n wat ur blog tells abt u was also toooo interesting..:)

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

@ Beena , What is the point if everyone agress with what you write? There is always a scope for an alternative view and a good debate :P

@alex:You bet :)

@attribution :Grinning . Hope u had a nice vishu :)

@ursjina: Hmmm, you know the pereceptions chnage when people meet face to face.

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

@ursjia:Hmmm, you know the pereceptions chnage when people meet face to face.and there is always something that your blogs does noe tell about you :)

Neihal said...

:-) must be interesting.

Shruti said...

Most of the time, you cant able to express your true being and fake thinking what if we hurt others...but on virtual world,.you dont know anybody so no chances to hurt and thus you reveal your true self...
and in the process we got so many friends in between..
take care...

mathew said...

bloggerworld is strange in its own way..fasicnating and yet deceptive sometimes..

Anonymous said...

This has happened to me too. I recently met someone in person whom i had met though blogs and believe me at the first meeting we talked like we knew each other for years.

Another blogger whom i follow had reported about an accident happened to his neighbour and i was one of the hundreds who helped sending in money only coz they were all readers of his blog. i met this blogger in person in the last barcamp and he said that he was so touched by his readers' offers to help considering the fact that they not only knew his neighbour but also him as a person.

silverine said...

I think some people are too obsessed with the blog world. I agree with what Shruthi says. This is a place that gives you max opportunity to be frank. But that frankness should not be misinterpreted as an invite into the personal space of a blogger. 'Read it & move on' should be people's blogging philosophy whether you are a blogger or reader. It is when people have no offline life that they start obsessing with blogs and bloggers!
If a blogger is elusive it is because he/she did not start blogging to win friends... but just to write. People should respect that.
I find the blog world a refreshing place because this is the only place where no gimmicks work and plain 'ol honesty is appreciated! :)

Jubin George said...

"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Talking much about others will reveal more about oneself"

-Corollary? A transitive relation? Or Nietzsche again?

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

@neihal: Hmm, It was in fact interesting :)

@shruti:Ya , you are very much right. Since we dont know anyone out here in real life we respond with whatever comes in our mind when we express through blog or when we comment on other posts and does not fake anything :).

@mathew:Yes mate , though it is strange , sometimes appearances are deceptive :)

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

@umesh: It was a nice gesture from your side to help that person . What you said is in fact one of the good things that has come out as a result of blogging . It helps in the networking of people like us who want to help others :)

@silverine:That is a strange interpretation :? . Cant get how someone can be obsessed with blogworld and most bloggers I know or read has a vibrant offline life about which they passionately rant about in their blogs making it interesting :). Else the blogs become a cliche :). If you see the trends in blogs most popular blogs are blogs where people narrate the true experiences on what happened to them and not those where people write about their opinion on India Pakistan foreign policy.I dont agree with you on the elusive part of a blogger and writing is a way of interacting with other people. If somebody gets into personal space then very well it can be controlled ;) . But I do agree with you on the honesty part and since we dont know anyone out there in real life we respond with whatever comes in our mind when we express through blog or when we comment on other posts and does not fake anything . It is the same reason for which I dont agree with some bloggers who accuse people of plagarising :( :P :) .

@jubin:You bet , the first sentence should be a marketing statement for any blogger :P.

crocodile said...

Methinks blogging is a way (at least for folks like me in late 30's) of going back to the college days. Some of the arguments remind me of a good old General Body meeting at the Hostel mess - nothing like it ;-). I had a friend who would come to the mess table and make a statement, for example, he would say - Partition was a good thing - and look around hopefully. If someone was feeling in the mood, there would be a fiery debate. After some time our man would have switched sides !! I used to sit quiet and watch the fun. I think blogging let us be ourselves once again - reallife at the workplace is too serious - you cant afford to say the wrong thing !! Thats why I like it - there are more genuine thoughts expressed here !!

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

You bet Sir , Truly genuine because no one knows anyone :). BTW which hostel and general body meeting you attended . As I went up and up in my education from KG to PG , I realised that people who make lot of noise generate the least out put :).

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