A recent post by Drew (Drew Duality) struck a chord with me. He wrote about a blogger who became a friend. There was just one problem: he only knew this man by his online name and contact information. Drew’s friend suddenly dropped off the Net. He didn’t respond to messages. Is he alive? Did he get hit by the coronavirus? There was no way to find out.
I have been thinking about this sort of thing for a while. What if something happens to Mrs. Lion and me? None of the people who know us here would have any way of discovering the issue. Did our Internet provider cut us off? Are we sick or worse? If I am the one struck down, will Mrs. Lion be able to manage the blog? I do all the technical stuff now. Will she even think about it? I suppose the same is true if something happened to her. I’m not sure I would be capable of letting you know.
it’s just the Internet
It’s too easy to simply decide that the Internet isn’t real and anybody who knows us there even considers us real people. To a large extent that’s probably true. Most of our readers don’t engage with us as people. We are a source of information and entertainment. If we go away, there are other blogs to read. Some of our readers have made us part of their lives. We love that. I think we owe them a way to know what happened if we suddenly disappear.
Mrs. Lion and I aren’t very social lions. She has some friends from work and prior jobs. I tend to lose contact with people. I was trying to come up with three references in case I find a new job. I’m having trouble doing it. That realization and Drew’s post is a wakeup call for me.
Drew’s solution is to provide social media contact information to people who know his real name and situation. That’s a great thought. My only social media outlet is Twitter (@TheCagedLion). I don’t trust Facebook. I don’t really communicate with folks on Twitter. I should. I have become way too isolated.
My original thought about letting people know if my world ends was to write a postdated post (future publication date). The idea being that I could keep changing the publication date. If anything happened to me/us, eventually the post would publish. It could give real names and other data so that people who cared would be able to figure out what happened to us.
I like Drew’s idea better. All I have to do is find a couple of bloggers who would be willing to become real-life friends. I hope I can do that. I also think I can keep the friendships alive and not withdraw into my comfortable isolation. I don’t think we are antisocial. We are both shy when it comes to people we don’t know well. It’s time that I get over this. I care about you. While our relationship may be one-way, it’s still real. I would like to think that you might want to know what happened if one dark night we are abducted by Republicans.
Do not worry Be Happy!
Love the last line of your blog.
I was being silly. The topic, however, is very serious for me.
Gee Lion, we really aren’t bad people, in fact most of are just hard working American taxpayers!
Most are. Some drank the Kool Aid and vote for that crazy person.
Good thoughts here. I have seen many blogs go dark over the years. Just stop posting and we wonder what happened. Did they run out of things to write about? Skip a few weeks and just get out of the habit? Give up on the “lifestyle”, whatever it was they were blogging about?
Or get captured by hard working American socialist taxpayers?
I can relate to your situation regarding friends. My wife is my best friend. Beyond that I have my siblings and inlaws, but not much in the way of friends. There are people I work with and know through scouts, but they are more acquaintances than friends. I have one neighbor couple that we are friendly with, but they are the only ones we have ever been inside the house of after living here 20 years. If I ran out of gas and needed to call someone for help when my wife was not available I don’t know who I could call. I know many people in our small town, but if we had a party there is nobody outside of family to invite. Now I feel even more lonely.
When it comes to being able to talk to anybody about “private” issues of sexuality, my wife is the only person I can talk to and even she does not want to hear most of what I am thinking of. So to have internet “friends” that I can relate to is a welcome outlet.
Would I feel comfortable meeting personally with someone local who knew about my kinky interests? I think if they had the same type of interests I would not worry about it and would welcome the opportunity to be free to relate with them. Now my wife on the other hand, I don’t see her being willing to let anyone know what we get up to!
I’m open to real life friendships with people who share or understand what I like. I share everything with Mrs. Lion.
This is a meaningful post. I became friends with a man who then. Exams a couple. The woman was lovely. We shared many conversations and I came to like them both very much. Suddenly they stopped posting. Every so often I would comment on their last post. Finally the gentleman emailed me and told me his love had passed. He explained the situation and told me he couldn’t blog anymore. He was grieving and trying to recover. I was so saddened. But I was very glad to know. I have wondered about this as well. I’m up for friendship if you’re looking for a friend.
Thanks, Michael. I certainly am looking for a friend. Mrs. Lion and I are alone. Our small families are thousands of miles away and very busy with their own lives. Thank you.
Not sure how we go about this. Let me know your ideas.