how dare you!

this is an interesting radio program about blogging + the willful decrease in privacy. while i was once a very open blogger, i have to admit that i look back at those old blogs + cringe at how forthcoming i was about things. cringe because, really, why would i presume to think that anyone could care about how i got shitfaced + drunk e-mailed someone? the majority of my friends don't care about such things-- why would strangers? why was i so earnest to share that? there was no real artistry or craft behind the confession; it was just a "oh, hey, i did such and such. + wasn't it all so wonderfully emo?"

one of the guests on the program, amongst a psychology today editor + a sociology professor, is a blogger named irina kendall. the moments were she speaks are the most entertaining to me. she talks in that unsure, wavering manner so common amongst my general peers, where every sentence, no matter its context, is stricken w/ inquisitory inflection. "well, like, i started my blog a few years ago(?) and i've never really had that problem(?). um, but yeah, i don't think that, like, blogs are the end of privacy(?)." abrupt pause before abruptly resuming: "but i don't think the internet's sole responsibility should be for social change(?). it's redefining relationships(?)." i'm still devastated the word "empowering" wasn't thrown in. so unpredictable, that blogosphere.

at the risk of sounding like some curmudgeonly dick, i do think there's been an erosion of certain desirable societal traits. the unabashed collective confessional has birthed a rather large social body of self-obsessed dullards, dutifully preoccupied w/ their own opinions, yet not really having opinions that in any way differ from the 780 other bloggers featured in their blogrolls (and blissfully unaware of that irony). sure, it's great that we live in a society where one is free to express one's opinions; unfortunately, that greatness rarely transfers onto the opinions themselves. and why the vehement insistence on getting these opinions across? where we raised in gulags? we're like rich kids whining about our right to have money.

i think, though, that what's begun to make me uneasy about all of this is a suspicion i have about this insistent right to blog about any + everything spilling over from the realm of boring self-promotion to blatant defamation. the biggest, fattest, gnarliest, cherub-cheekiest example being mario laundromat, aka "perez hilton" and his rather self-righteous crusade to out anyone he suspects of being queer. what's that bit about people who think they're doing good doing the most damage? ah, well, so it goes: self-righteousness + blogging go hand in hand, as is exemplified by "web 2.0"'s general bluster about "changing the fucking universe" (tip: you're beginning to sound like baby boomers) via youtube + twitter. no doubt, dude. just like betamax, right?

anyway, call me a romantic, but i find myself longing for a bit of mystery. just a little bit; enough to keep me on my toes. recently i found out something about em that (pleasantly) surprised me. it was inadvertent + she was embarrassed at first, but we had great fun over it. what was it? fuck if i'll tell you.