Depth of Vision
It occurred to me this evening how truly small the Internet makes this vast universe. I’ve been reading it over and over, but it just finally sunk in that the massive appeal of Social Media is that it allows us to connect with others be they friends, family, co-workers, strangers of like minds or arch nemeses.
I think that it was the connection part that just wasn’t, well, connecting. And this led to the bigger revelation, that the Internet, far from what the detractors say, isn’t keeping people from being part of the world, it’s really giving them the world on a silver laptop.
Several things hppened recently that has caused this revelation. The first was that I finally succumbed to Facebook and connected (although more often reconnected) with nearly 100 people from my past and present within about 3 weeks.
Then I began following more people on Twitter, including several co-workers and got some surprising and unexpected insights into the people I see everyday, but obviously don’t completely see.
And jut this evening, I logged into BlogCatalog and saw yet another message from someone thanking me for visiting their blog.
I get a lot of these and I could never figure out why, because I never read blogs. I never have the time. And then I realized that I am a complete idiot.
I read blogs all day every day. In fact, some days I do nothing but read blogs. At work. For work. I get a few hundred Google Alerts each day and maybe 50 Tweet Beeps in addition to whatever links look interesting or informative from my Twiiter followers on both my personal and work Twitter accounts.
And since I am on BlogCatalog, when I read a blog that has a BlogCatalog widget while working, my personal information and personal blog are accessible to the blog owner and subsequent visitors. I am everywhere and I didnt even realize.
I thought I was hermetically sealed and here it turns out I am easily connectible to any one of the 1.6 billion people online on this planet and so are you.
I don’t know if I’m wary or relieved.
