Online Personality Splitter...

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she told me that she had just read my blog, and said something pretty interesting...

Her exact words were, 'Why don't you act the way you do on your blog, all the time...?'

Which brings up a lot of things...
The stuff I put up here is my own opinion. but it normally stays like a little voice in my head, making observations about crap around me...Now that I blog, the only thing that's changed is that I give vent to all that, online...

Normally stuff like that stays in a persons mind, only coming out during conversations with like minded persons...known as 'Bitching sessions', in colloquial terms...

But the Internet has changed all that...now people whine about their jobs, their friends, their boss, their college life...blah...

Why do I bring this up? I was informed about an NDTV special feature on Indian bloggers, and whether Blogging in general is good or bad...I cannot understand where the dispute stems from...

Some say it's bad because it consists of inane, banal 'Water cooler conversations' which people write...

I say, if it's inane and banal, that just means it's better than your average K-serial, which nobody seems to have a problem with...

Some say it's bad because people write (quote) 'Titillating accounts of their romantic escapades' (unquote)

I say, the only people who visit such places are those who haven't realized the disgusting vastness of internet porn, where your every sick fantasy can be fulfilled...from children to senior citizens...eew...

But people barely ever whine about that, Ignoring the fact that there are about 5 porn sites for every 'Titillating' blog in existence...

Some say that people who write about their lives and the people around them end up damaging other people's reputations...(I take some deep offense at this line considering that this is MY category..)

Ahem?? If bloggers, who write for a very limited audience end up 'Tarnishing images and messing with reputations' then what about gossip columnists in national daily newspapers who make every unverified rumor into Page 3 propaganda? What about the Bombay Times and crap magazines like 'Stardust' and 'Glamor ' which are rags so deeply steeped in nonsense that the fact that they have a million strong subscriber base is justification enough even for the existence of blogs like these...

Point is, that this citizen journalism thing stems from the Internet as a catalyst itself...there's something about Web 2.0 that makes you want to give your opinion about things and listen to opinions too...
And the reason is Anonymity!!!
You don't know who the person yelling at *Fill in the blank with a thing you hate* is, and nobody knows you either!

Imagine for example, if the director of Area 51 cracked under the pressure of keeping top secret stuff so top secret, and finally acknowledges the existence of Aliens...nobody can hold that against him, because no-one knows it's him in the first place...

You can give your opinion without fear! Free speech is finally discovered! and so if something happens, be prepared to get an opinion about it...lots and lots of opinions from people who you've never met but who probably make more sense than the people you have met...that's why Anonymity shouldn't be considered a screen to hide behind, it's a weapon, which kinda splits your personality and brings out that dark, angry side of you and your opinions...
Where nobody can hurt you for saying the truth!

If this scares you, realize that a dark side is part of everybody, and that all the internet has done is given people to vent their feelings...The guy whose blog you're reading could be just about anybody...
And maybe the guy you see walking by is the guy who criticizes George Bush online every night,

And maybe a soldier in Afghanistan is writing poetry, between his patrol shifts, about the futility of War...

And maybe the Guy you see in college, looking like any average joe, with messy hair and thick glasses is just another nerdy student trying to get his 105...
Or he could just be me...