Blogging is a new type of relationship

I was just thinking about how strange blogging relationships are. Seriously. I’m just going to use Sue as an example but it truly applies to every relationship that develops from reading blogs.

Sue (Dirby Girl) is a blogger I have been reading for over a year now and seriously, I feel like I know her. As many bloggers do, over the past year she has blogged about her vacations, her relationships, her family, lifestyle, well being, and even a bit about her profession. It’s all stuff I would know about someone I maintain personal contact with. To drag that out more, I’m sure she knows all about my hobbies, work, life, girlfriend, friends, and could even possibly know a little about my entire family as I link to the blog I put up for my whole family. I’d go so far as to say we know each other quite well. Because of blogging I even know when she’s been sick, how bad it was, and how long it lasted. . That all may sound crazy but what tops the cake is we have never actually talked. I rarely ever find myself actually chatting with bloggers I regular. I post once in a while on her blog and she posts once in a while on mine. That is the full extent of our communication. It really didn’t dawn on me until now that blogging relationships are a whole new world of personal relationship. Or is it? I have been avoiding calling them personal relationships but seriously, that is what they are. How could it not be? It just passes off as really strange to me. How could I be curious what sue is going to plant in her garden next year? Will she post more pics of her battle with the infamous squirrels? Will she ever give N (her significant other’s internet name) a name? What will her sons next step be now that he is beyond school? How is his job? How is his driving skills coming along? Will she follow up on the recent election results? I’m even curious if she intends on visiting her home town.. This is all information you share with personal relationships. I’m not sure if it is now cool for people you don’t know to know so much about you or what. All the information is out there to read about. Bloggers (myself included) post all this information on a regular basis. Do we know what will come of all this? Is this going to make not having a real social life more acceptable? This kind of thing is going to continue changing life’s. I can only imagine how many bloggers will marry other bloggers even though chatters marry other chatters regularly already. Will this boom? What kind of consequences does it bring about? I’ve already gotten in trouble more than once for what I have posted.

Will Sue & I ever chat? Who knows? How many years will we follow each other’s blog? Who knows? I do know that I have met quite a few very cool people like Sue who blog and not to be a psychopath but I wouldn’t turn any one of em down if they somehow managed their way to my city. I’m fairly confident that I’m going to someday fly out and harass Andy some day. If he gets trained into skydiving I may even one day drop him out of my plane into the wilderness for a hiking treck. It’s nearly unthinkable to consider these things when I don’t chat with him either. I know that if I need any programming related help (no matter how lame it may be) I’ll ask Andy. That is about the full extent of our communication. I ran across Sue’s blog because Andy regulars hers. I tell you what, if us three got together it would be one hell of a strange situation. We’ve got the master hacker/woodsman & computer programmer Andy who looks like he’d crush you like a bug if you agitated him or tried to rob him on the street but is probably one of the nicest guys I know. We’ve got Sue, our friendly neighbor in Canada intelligently living the working mom lifestyle while maintaining a relationship, good health & hates chores like the rest of us. Then we’ve got me the happy half assed attempt at a hacker trying to live at 150mph+.. lol.

I just met a new friend in town & found out his wife blogs. A few clicks and I immediately have her history. He caught up to speed reading my blog. Everyone I meet seems to catch up to speed reading my blog. Watching as we form the future & create history in action is cool but what will be the backlash? If I somehow broke up with my girlfriend, would the next girl find my previous blog entries offensive? I just find blogging relationships intriguing. I’m done babbling & have hopefully not scared off Sue or Andy.