I envy Crazy Aunt Purl in a way-- she is open in a way that I have never been able to achieve. Which, in it's own sort of way, brings me back to my ideas about the internet and communication and such.

I have a lot of friends that I met through the internet. We were all on the same livejournal "bellingham" community years ago and decided to stage a meet-up. I made some very good friends both on that day and even before, all through this little wonder of the internet.

The thing is, as we all became good everyday friends (one eventually became one of my roommates and best friends), we also started to get more judicious about what we said when we knew certain people were reading. We've come to a point where we hide what we really think now.

Too many people think that what is written online is about them, and they take up and arms to it. And, because we all know eachother and hang out day-to-day, some of these things are about eachother, but they seem so much worse in print. I know that I could say something to 99% of my friends and have them think whatever I said was okay, but if I wrote the exact same thing, only 50% would be okay. The other 50% would be angry. I have yet to understand this phenomenon-- how completely normal people can take such different meanings from things they hear vs. things they read.

I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of context in the written word-- when you say you're mad, there's no way to gauge how mad you are, or if you're even really that mad at all. But I also think a lot of it comes from the mindset of the reader-- the readers who have never met said writer can't place themselves in the writer's subject. Granted, they can in an "I've been there, I understand" sort of way, but they can't actually put themselves in the middle of the writer's actual daily life.

It also has to do with the finality of the written word versus saying something. We can pass off the things people say, but if they take the time to write them, holy shit.... (/sarcasm)

There's more, but I'm far too tired to go further. Goodnight, wonderful few.