Following

Why is it whenever you decide to "follow" another person's blog then they give you the option to "follow publicly" or "follow privately". Really folks? What difference does it matter if I follow publicly or privately? It's not like anyone's going to really care anyways. But alas, I've gotten ahead of myself.

I suppose we can't ruin some of the surprise whenever our ex's or people we used to be friends with but now passionately despise with a smile on our faces decide to follow that person just so that our own sense of fetishistic needs can be satiated through being unseen while reading their own private ramblings.

Which leads me to this: I think social networking sights should begin jumping to its own conclusions (even more so than it already does). Thanks for telling me that I haven't spoken to my ex girlfriend in seven years and that "Maybe I should reconnect with her". How thoughtful of you. Luckily facebook has the pleasure of not knowing the greed or jealousy that can palpitate a seemingly healthy relationship and reduce it into sniveling dribble.

Seriously though, how great would that be?

"Michael is obsessing over why Hannah left him" as it pops up on everyone in your friends list, because everyone decides that they want to actually follow your status updates that are ultimately decided upon by the machine.

"Susan is beginning to think she shouldn't have gotten so drunk last night..."

"Stephen got a new job but really hates it and thinks his boss is a douche."

As I go on I'm beginning to see why instantly my idea is flawed but hey, it'd make a great story. Imagine the conversations as they go beyond normal babble and into deep, character-driven dialogue.

"So you think I'm a douche?" Defend that one in a timely manner.

"What happened after you got drunk? Tell me you didn't (insert verb) with 'that guy' did you?"

Perhaps a deeper subject I'm reaching for here is that of identity. We have so many identities construed through so many mediums that for once I think it'd be awesome to see these all torn down and possibly used against ourselves.

With the internet, everything is possible to manipulate and fabricate (still waiting on my check from my distant cousin. He's a prince. People know him. He's kind of a big deal). People are able to create false identities of themselves and sell it as being the truth. This provides me with an unsolicited platform to just go blah blah blah and people (well, not yet. thank you to all of my 4 READERS) in a way where I can more freely express myself and not have to worry about being interrupted or cut off way too short, allowing me in my A.D.D. riddled mind to lose track of my ramblings and allow those thoughts to slip into the nothingness of time (hmm...sense a blog on existentialism popping up soon).

So to sum up this diatribe of more hypocritical bulloney I believe that the internet is in many ways supporting identity shifts and behaviors that are sort of scary. I made a joking reference to being able to follow whoever and be free to follow anonymously, but seriously: is that a good thing? If I have followers I think it'd only be fair to know who. This isn't meant to turn into some Orwell-ian 1984 babble but rather to say that why is it important to have the option to be obscure and unheard whenever (seemingly) fruitful relationships could spawn up over the course of interaction.

I'd much rather make friends with someone who openly said "Hey, you're shit and what you write is shit but at least you say shit and you know that i don't like your shit! " and have it come from someone with a discernible identity (that damned word again) as opposed to making friends with someone saying the same thing who wouldn't have an identity. That, or not having an identity before forcing themselves into the light to unload this terrible diatribe against all of my writings and then vanish into the invisible fabric of space.

It's much easier to come to terms with something that you know and can see and can feel as opposed to try to make amends with an intangible ideal that may be muttered with a ferocious power to destabilize someone's good intentions. That's all.