I’m not talking about the wall that stops you from finding stuff to write about, I’m talking about the one between “blogging aware” people and the rest of the world. I’ve hit that wall a bunch of times but the holidays, as expected, are proving a breeding ground for “blogging unaware people”.
I’d say, as a rough estimate, that 75-80% of the people I see voluntarily, outside of anything organized, are bloggers. It’s not that they’re the only people I meet but that’s already one “potential kindred spirit” point and so, chances are, I meet people with related tastes through blogging.
Anyway, point is, when talking with family or “other friends”, if I talk about something I did, a place I went, etc. There are good chances there’s some blogger friends involved. Since most of the “other” people don’t know what blogging is and I’m tired of explaining, I’ll just say friends. Which is a good way to go anyway. But then when the “where’d you meet them/her/him?” questions come. What can I answer? “They’re blog people”, “They’re Yulblog people”, “They’re website people”.
For example, today I was talking books with someone and we get to Matthieu Simard*, I mention his two excellent books and Alex’s post comes to mind. Good story if you’re a blogger. I posted about the book, Alex bought it, enjoyed it, posted about it and the author commented on the entry the very same day. Fun. Try telling that to someone who doesn’t know what a blog is!
Same thing happens with Ultimate Frisbee, W3Québec and Ile Sans Fil, which kind of puts a crimp on discussions. What do you do? websites, emphasis on web standards, accessibility / huh? I went out with these people / where’d you meet them? Some of them at Yulblog / at what? Friends from Ultimate / from what? Went to the ISF party / the huh? Where do you work from? Cafes with free Wifi / free wtf? How do you find you’re contracts? Some from people I meet through blogs and w3qc / the what and the who?
Can’t wait to talk to my grandad next week. I build websites working from cafés using radio waves to connect to the interweb while chatting online with people I mostly met through blogging and throwing a plastic frisbee. He’s the dad from “Little House on the Prairie” and at 94 could probably still kick my ass. Love him but, you know, pretty hard to update him on what I’m doing.
*En passant Matthieu, ca te prendrait vraiment un site web. Ou encore mieux, comme disait Alex, un blog. Si tu veux essayer çà j’t’en offre un gratos pour voir comment ca marche. email moi.
6 Comments
hmmm put the rest of your family on a weblog. :)
I know what you mean. Before, in another life, for all my family, I was “someone” doing important things (even though they didn’t understand wtf I was really doing) ‘cause I had a big corner office in a real building and a secretary to answer my phone (probably because my organization thought that I didn’t know how to use that piece of equipment :)
Now, I’m just a coffee addict that is losing his time in cafes and playing with computers more than ever before. They probably all think that I must grow up and get a “real” job!
– “You know… 9 to 5, a tie and an ulcer”
Mir just put her family (on her dad’s side) on a weblog.
http://familieverburg.flinknet.com/
And Pat, I just want to say “ditto”. Many times I think that the main reason I started IleSansFil was to make some friends that I could talk to.
Yeah. That just about sums it up! Except my mother reads my blog…which is a problem in itself!
yeah the only problem with the family blog thing is that it had to have all sorts of publicity restrictions, because my dad doesn’t like people commenting on his life. (oops.. what am i doing here??)
It seems like a generational thing except my brother is a CS student and he doesn’t like the idea of blogs either.
well we’ll see.
Well, on the other hand your grandpa probably met a lot of his friends playing bridge, hanging out at the grocery store/cafe, drinking scotch after work, on the train, branding horses/cutting trees (or whatever . . .).
It’s the same stuff. Some common interests, some luck, some being in the same place at the same time, some of the fact that this is a socially acceptable thing to do. The only difference is that lots of people aren’t comfortable with these expensive little boxes we use to find our friends these days.