hahahaha

This is a good point.

I’m doing work in a field where ones life is put on display. I put my stuff on sites because I’d rather be doing it myself than waiting for someone to put it out there about me.

I’m reminded of a quote from a conversation with the girl referenced in the last paragraph.

She joked, “I’m not sure I should talk voice with a strange guy from the internet.”

I replied, “If it’s any help, I assure you that I am equally strange when I’m not on the internet.”

I really don’t see a difference between real life and reality either. Some of my best friends in the entire world are girls I met online when I was 16. We still keep in touch constantly, mostly through LiveJournal.

I’m not sure I really make a distinction per se between ‘internet’ and reality. It’s not like the people out there are figments of my imagination or anything. I just play my cards close to my chest. I’m also not really online to make friends – I get into discussions for the discussion’s sake. Some stuff gets out, but unless I can account for each and every person it’s getting out to, I limit certain details.

But then I do the whole compartamentalization of data and ‘need to know’ thing in the physical world too. My acquaintances generally have highly unofficial ‘access levels’. This means that a lot of my co-workers have thought me to be a standoffish jerk, particularly in offices where the ethos was that just because everyone worked together they were all FRIENDS.

I kind of skipped the whole trendy ‘social networking’ thing for that reason. Well, until a month ago. I FINALLY got Facebook, on account that just about everyone I know has it. It wasn’t so much to meet people, as to help keep track of the ones I already know, who are scattered liberally across the continent and occasionally further. Ultimately I joined a few groups (generally relating to local cultural goings-on, political organizations, etc). But I keep my privacy settings on maximum, and I don’t really use the groups to find friends, or even talk much, so much as I do to get updates on upcoming symphony performances.

I completely passed on Livejournal, despite vigorous encouragement of friends of mine. I just didn’t feel any pressing need to tell everyone what I was up to.

I wouldn’t be alarmed if my mom googled me. The only stuff she’d find that’s directly linkable is within her access level. Ditto for a boss. And frankly, they’d have a tricky time finding that.

So I guess I’m just kind of private. Except when I’m not. I mean, sometimes I DO make friends online. Hell, probably the best relationship of my life started online with us exchanging high-velocity depleted uranium and particle beam fire on a regular basis in a deeply nerdy strategy game environment (it used ascii graphics!). It’s not like we fell for each other online, though – that happened years later in the flesh. And it’s not like we let each other into our lives with any real haste either – that took many months and a simulated body count which made the Battle of the Somme look downright placid.

Why is it that you’re staying away from those sites?

im generaly not scared of what people will find when the google my name, and i try to stay away from sites like MySpace or anything of that sort.