Blog LoTs...

Came across an interesting line of thought in one of the blogs I read.

Incidentally another interesting line of thought hit me right now, so the earlier one will have to wait till after this.

Now, recently i've been reading a lot of blogs ..damn, another line of thought. I'm positively spewing out LoTs today. Lets assimilate and consolidate them before I lose all these threads -

LoT 1). Life through a blog:

This is one thing I love to do. I take an unknown blog, start from the beginning and read through all the posts right till the end. Sometimes you can see the entire life of the person unfolding infront of you. His trials and tribulations, his triumphs and tragedies, his thoughts and actions (Damn, couldn't get a word for action starting with T :) ). Its amazing to think that people pour so much of themselves in their blogs. (Analogy to the Chamber of Secrets - Harry Potter. I hope for your sake that you're a Potter fan)

Sometimes if I just lean back and close my eyes, I can positively imagine the person and how he would behave in a particular situation. So I think I know that a blogger X would take something very emotionally while another Y would hurt inside but would move on with a gruff word. I know that A is funny but very insightful, though B's thoughts need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Is this a voyeuristic exercise? Maybe
Is it ethically correct to analyse and judge people on the basis of posts written under severe tension, or joy, or boredom? I don't know.

But whatever the actual answers may be, it is in human nature to try to understand other people. Thats why we're social animals - probably why language developed in all corners of the world. But another question does come up when this line of thought is pursued -

Does blogging make the blogger vulnerable?

We've all heard of employers going through potential employees' blogs as part of reference checks. Again, is that an ethical practice. A person may be interested in the occult arts and his blog may reflect that.

But does it really affect his work as a banker?

But it is again human nature to want to surround oneself with 'safe' people. People who are just like you, same aspirations, same thought processes. Non-conformity scares people. It shows up a mirror to people about what they could've been if they'd followed their hearts.

To talk about me, I am very honest in my blog and my guess is that if someone had the inclination to (and absolutely no work in the whole wide world !)read my blog in its entirety, they would be able to draw up some fairly correct conclusions about me. And thats a scary thought. To be predictable to strangers is a disquieting thought. Maybe private and closed circulation blogs do have something in them.

* On a positive note, I love the fact that a couple of years later I would be able to read all this and have a record of what I was as a person. Its one thing that motivates me to write here, and i'm closing in on a hundred posts - so the motivation is definitely strong)


LoT 2). Blog "connections":

How do you discover new blogs? Mostly it is through blogrolls and links provided in other blogs. So you start reading one blog, like its content and the updates. Then you go to links the blogger thought should be put up. Like that content too. Add them to your favourites too.

You comment on various posts where you feel you have something to say. You get responses and reciprocal visits and comments on your blog. But pretty soon the frequency of posts on those blogs reduce. You also get itchy to explore new blogs, so the frequency with which you visit those blogs goes down, comments too. And slowly they become a part of history. So the exchange of ideas and thoughts that is the basis of any lasting friendship comes to a halt.

Thus, the crux of this LoT, that i've lost in the paragraph above, is that blogs breed fickle connections (friendships?). They spark up, go through their honeymoon periods and then flicker out.