Some people love the internet, some people hate it… I like it for the most part, but I know several people who are very anti-internet, for several long-winded reasons that would take too long to explain here. Instead of arguing with them, which I know I’d fail at – I’m rubbish at debates that don’t involve food or prizes – I decided to write a blog post instead.
One of the things I love about the internet is the ability to share my opinions online – I was always too lazy to keep a diary, and always wanted to edit what I had written. Yay for blogs! I write a blog for myself, as a record of my life. In several years time, when I’ll have hopefully have had more experiences, and generally be much *ahem* wiser, I’ll be able to look back and say “Ooh, that’s what I was like when I was younger! Why was I such an idiot?” I’m lucky in that respect. What other generation has been able to document their whole life digitally? Websites such as Plurk and Twitter also mean that I can keep track of what I was doing on a particular day, and what my thoughts and emotions were.
There is also an abundance of articles and information on the web, and this means that I no longer have to read through dusty old textbooks to find the relevant information that I need. Less time at the library means more time at home procrastinating on my next task!
Like most people, my primary use of the internet* is to talk to new people, make friends and forge relationships. The sad fact is that there will always be some people who are socially awkward, and I fall directly into that category. I trip over my words in real life, and speak without thinking (which usually means I am known as the ‘sarcastic one’, the one to avoid).
Generally, I hate public speaking, and will avoid it at all costs. But I do know how to write. Typing stuff to someone on the other side of a computer screen is easier for me because it gives me time to phrase my words.
The internet is a refuge; a place to meet and talk to people who actually know what a meme is, unlike most of the general population.
A forum post I read a few months ago stuck with me. I realised that even after I’m long gone, my comments and opinions on various websites will still be floating around the internet, hereby giving me some sort of immortality. Bwahahaha! I is living in ur internetz! Future historians will no longer have to assume what life was like in the early 21st century. They’ll know from something as simple as a Google search. I have no qualms about the internet being here in 1000 or so years, provided the earth doesn’t blow up in our faces then.
*Aside from faffing around with bits of code and wasting time playing games on social networking sites.
Somewhere along the line of when I was learning how to use a computer and eventually managing to build a website, RSS feeds became the ‘thing’.* If you owned anything that updated, you HAD to have an RSS feed in case someone wanted to follow what you were saying.
In my case, no one.**
I did try to make a go out of using it, honest! I spent ages subscribing to the blogs I liked, organising all my feeds into relevant categories, and checked them whenever they updated. But it’s just a bit disconcerting when you open Google Reader and there’s thousands and thousands of unread items. I know I could just mark everything as read, but my conscience kept on whispering to me, “you haven’t read that one yet. Or that one. Or that one. Or that little one you thought you could get away with. I saw what you did.”
I’m one of those people that can’t stand anything unread, and will always read all my emails (despite being crap at responding). Luckily, I can keep up with all my emails, but having thousands of unread items in Google Reader every day was annoying, despite me spending hours each day clearing it all. Eventually, I had had enough, and promptly removed the thing.
In retrospect, I could’ve just subscribed to blogs that updated less, but then what would be the point? The blogs I like update umpteen times a day, and I have no time to follow all their posts. Unlike some, I don’t want to know what I’ve missed, which is what my RSS reader kept trying to do. I found it a bit like a whining relative. “You haven’t read [blah]‘s post on [blah] yet! Read it or it’ll stay unread!”
This blog does have an RSS feed (but that really wasn’t my choice; it came with WordPress), and you’re welcome to follow it if you like, but if you agree with what I’ve said above, don’t. Heh. I would be honoured if you counted me as one of the people that you want to stay updated with.
I do see the virtues of RSS, as if you want to stay updated with everything a website does, and keep up with all the latest news, it’s perfect. However, I feel that ignorance is bliss (at least when it comes to blogs). My way of keeping up to date with everything is… *le gasp* MANUALLY! I have a disarray of unorganised bookmarks of the blogs I like.*** I open them in multiple tabs every now and then to check on how they’re doing; sometimes there’s something new for me to read, sometimes there isn’t. I may miss out on some things (for example, I missed out on the chance to buy a signed xkcd book a few weeks ago), but generally, I like the feeling of surprise and delight I get when I visit someone’s blog for the first time in a few days to see that they’ve added something new that wasn’t there before.
For me, the pros balance out the cons, and I know that my old-fashioned bookmarks won’t nag at me if I don’t read them for a while. They may be old, but they still lead me to amazing stories and show me new things every day.****
*Wikipedia tells me RSS properly took off in 2005, when Microsoft adopted it. Meh.
**A quick check of my stats actually reveals there are 17 people subscribed to this feed. Erm, hello there. Stay with me, please! *clings petulantly*
*** After spending ages organising my feeds in Google Reader, I just couldn’t be bothered to do the same with my bookmarks, despite the fact that I am primarily using bookmarks these days. It’s on my To Do list, honest!
****And my strange metaphor of the day is that RSS is the nagging aunt to my bookmarks, which are the really awesome grandfathers. I’ll take the awesome grandfather any day.
I DID IT! I’m pretty surprised at myself, considering I usually blog every 3 or 4 months.
30 days.
30 posts.
About 5 hours of staring at a blank screen. Approximately 10 hours typing without proof-reading (because it was 2AM).
Having the courage to become a commenter instead of a lurker. I’ve realised it’s less creepy to comment on a blog I visit often, because my IP address shows up in their logs anyway, and it’s nice to put some numbers to a name.
Leaving hundreds of comments. Getting loads (compared to the big fat zero I usually get) in return. People actually read what I write now!
Finding new blogs to read. Different opinions cause interesting debates in the comments.
Talking to new people.
Learning about… stuff. From terms of endearment in Russian to infertility-related medical acronyms (no links here, because there are many, many blogs)… I’ve read many blogs that I would have never come across if it wasn’t for NaBloPoMo. I’m gonna be awesome at pub quizzes. That is, if there are pub quizzes on building a family, what people did on Black Friday and butchering a cow.
Thank you!
I might try to keep this daily blogging thing up for a while. We’ll see how it goes. December’s an interesting month. My birthday’s on the 14th *cough cough hint hint*, Christmas is on the 25th, Boxing Day (and a certain someone’s birthday) is on the 26th, and soon the month will be over.
For all those I’ve ‘met’ during NaBloPoMo, thanks for letting me into your blogs. I love reading them and will continue to do so. I will also try to occasionally overcome my lurking tendencies to comment and say hi. Joining the Comment for a Comment group was the best decision I made this month.
Now, all that’s left to do is eye up the 2009 Prizes and hope my name gets drawn for something like a sock zombie or a Twitter background from @caffeinatedelf. *drools*
Whee! I did it!
November is cold, dark, and dreary – on this side of the hemisphere, anyway. I like Australian weather. Everything gets dark stupidly early, it rains more, and my tonsils give in easier to all the viruses floating about (because you really wanted that image in your head). Generally, it’s a crap month, filled with failing portable heaters and limbs that feel like they’re about to fall off.
The internet seeks to fix this by filling it with events with strange names.
There’s NaBloPoMo (30 blog posts in 30 days), which is why I’m writing a blog post now. I CAN’T FAIL ON THE 29TH DAY!
The carbon copy of that is NaBloWriMo, which appears to do the same thing. >.>
…And these two are based on NaNoWriMo, where you write a novel in 30 days instead. I didn’t do it this year, although I did say I would attempt it (and, er, didn’t).
Last week, I also made a half-hearted attempt to take part in IComLeavWe, where I attempted to leave comments on other participants’ blogs, that were largely about infertility and adoption. I do not know anything about either, which made the whole thing a major fail on my part.
Whilst these online events are fun, I wish they’d make shorter names so that I wouldn’t have to abuse my shift key so much.
A typical comment: “Hi, I’m doing NaBloPoMo too (but not NaBloWriMo)! I might do NaNoWriMo this year, but I think I won’t have time for it because IComLeavWe is on towards the end of the month…”
*flails*
I find buying presents for my friends very stressful. As I’m not creative and cannot make things to save my life, buying seems to be the only option. First, there’s the budget. Does it look too cheap? Does it look tacky? Is it worth paying that much for a present?
Then there’s the person. Will they use the gift I’ve bought for them? Or will it turn into one of those ugly presents from relatives that you never use? No matter how long I’ve known people for, I still don’t know what they want for birthdays and holidays. I hate people who say, “Oh, I don’t care what I get,” because secretly, they do, and then try to hide their disappointment when you’ve gotten them something they hadn’t expected to get. Tell me what you want for your birthday, or I’ll end up picking the first thing that looks nice.
If someone buys me something, I will always buy them something in return. This becomes even more difficult when I hardly know the person I’m buying stuff for. If I had a choice between getting lots of presents (and having to buy people things in return), and getting no presents at all, I think I’d take the latter.
Because that’ll save me from buying someone a wallet shaped like a hamburger as a birthday present.
Recent Comments