Whoo hoo! My very first journal entry!
Apr. 28th, 2004 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaotic_nippleNow what to write about...? I guess I'll start off with the profound statement, which has _never_ been made in all the history of mankind ;-) , that the Internet is a funny place. Case in point:
A bit more than a year ago, when I was first getting ready to deploy to Iraq, my Mom was in a supermarket in Great Barrington. When she paid with a check, the cashier asked if she was related to me. Turned out that the cashier was a current student at my old college, and was subscribed to a mailing list that I regularly posted on. From reading my posts, she knew enough about me to have a moderately detailed conversation with Mom. And I knew her... about well enough to recognize her name, after a minute or two to think.
For a while, this was cool, on account of "Neat! I'm a minor celebrity, known by dozens of lurkers!". Then I got to thinking how things like this really bring home the atomization of internet 'society'. While there's frequently an illusion of intimacy, you can think you know someone much better than you really do, or vice versa. And I can't think where I intended to go with this, but heck, I had to have _something_ to post.
A bit more than a year ago, when I was first getting ready to deploy to Iraq, my Mom was in a supermarket in Great Barrington. When she paid with a check, the cashier asked if she was related to me. Turned out that the cashier was a current student at my old college, and was subscribed to a mailing list that I regularly posted on. From reading my posts, she knew enough about me to have a moderately detailed conversation with Mom. And I knew her... about well enough to recognize her name, after a minute or two to think.
For a while, this was cool, on account of "Neat! I'm a minor celebrity, known by dozens of lurkers!". Then I got to thinking how things like this really bring home the atomization of internet 'society'. While there's frequently an illusion of intimacy, you can think you know someone much better than you really do, or vice versa. And I can't think where I intended to go with this, but heck, I had to have _something_ to post.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-30 10:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-01 12:15 pm (UTC)