“I’m an open blog…er er…open book”

It sometimes surprises me how much of an open ‘book’ we all are through our blogs. I’m sure if I meet most of the people in my blog roll, there’s at least one thing I know about them which does not fall into categories like “Where’s his native place”, “Where’s she working”, “Is she from Delhi”, “Is he married”, and so on.

There’s so much that’s shared on a blog: in the form of tags (am sure they were invented by a stalker ;)), memories, feelings, incidents, rants, and what not!

I remember an age when we were asked not to put up our pics on the Internet (for fear of misuse); not to put up personal info about ourselves (now, personal info is just bank account number and the like); not to trust people you see online (20/F/Delhi may very well be 75/M/Uganda); not to correspond with people who write personal mails to you, if you don’t really know them personally. All bleh!

I guess, especially for bloggers, there’s no fear of being open about themselves. When you blog, you’re being yourselves. Your readers have different opinions, perspectives, ideas; they may not always agree with you, and they are open about that too!

When we read something about a person on a blog, like a tag on his/her fav 10 eatables, 3 fav dresses, or 5 fav movies/songs, we just tend to believe it and relate those things with that person. We don’t question it, or doubt its
authenticity. Somehow, hypocrisy seems to hit a firewall when a blog is opened 😀

Just the other day, I got a mail from Uma, based on a comment I had put in her blog. She wanted to know a few details about taking up literature (for her daughter’s higher edu). One mail turned into a thread of 5 or 6..and finally she said “the speed of thought is so much more. we can talk in person” and we exchanged mobile numbers!! (Damn! That reminds me, I haven’t called her up yet. I will, Uma; today, for sure ;))

I will not sit and wonder if this “Uma, mother of two girls” is actually a 50-year old stalker looking forward to whisper indecencies over the phone! 😀 In fact, if anything, we both felt real good to be actually writing long mails to each other, like we’ve known each other for the past 300 years! 😀

Apart from letting us be our true self (and not worry what others will think), blogging does a lot to all of us: though we don’t realise it much. It tells us a lot about perspectives, cultures, current affairs (and people’s views on them), likes, dislikes, trends, cities, beliefs, and what not!
What do you all feel? Is there an inherent danger in being so open to the world? Do you think some disaster could come out of it? Do you think someone could take advantage of you after figuring out the kind of person you are? Do you think it’s not the best thing to be such an “open book”?

I, let me admit, don’t. Here’s to all the lovely bloggers…and their even lovelier blogs! You all make life much more fun 😀