Fancy meeting you here, Mark Bittman

I have become completely addicted to my blog. I would like to blame JW for most of this...he keeps telling me about cool tools and shareware and other wondrous things that allow me to geek out even more than I was before.

I just added an RSS feed and am working on a topic cloud. What's next?! Soon all 3 of my readers will be able to upload my latest post on their mobile while commuting to work.

Is this the new form of communication? In the world of free share-ware, why does one really need a facebook or MySpace or friendster or LookAtMeAndMyFriends page? Doesn't a blog have all that ability to share and "show the world the real you"? Granted you may not be able to play scrabulous as easily but you still have the ability to create an online virtual persona that is one part a little bit you, one part the internal part you don't usually share, and one part the person you wish you were.

Just today in the NYT they had an article about the value of turning off and remaining unplugged at least once a week. Having just gotten my first laptop (i.e. working) computer in 10 years, I feel like I just got the the party, and yet people are already starting to leave.

Part of the reason I avoid technology sometimes is I very easily have the ability to go too far. I have an inner geek...I just also have an outer person who enjoys showers. So, if my CD player still works, why do I need an mp3 player (yet)? Since I got my laptop in January I have most definitely spent way more hours on it than dedicated to any other single activity. I have stayed up hours past when I have intended to go to sleep. I have found other blogs and are reading them regularly just because I wonder how they come up with content. I check my analytics almost daily. (Kiev?! Really?!)

So is technology just another outlet for releasing an internal part of me that might not otherwise get to whine and be completely neurotic all the time or is it an escape from daily 'real' life? I've started to care more about what I should write about next or what features to add than whether I get to work on time. Is that a result of technology or doing the same job for two years? Maybe a bit of both.

I have often thought that photographers very often enjoy taking photos because they get to set up the view of the world they want to portray, and they don't have to include themselves in it. In a way, blogging is a way to do the same except the focus is on you. You get to construct that lens through which others will see you. If you know nothing about me and read this, you will have a completely different idea of who I am than if you met me walking down the street.

Maybe this is why the internet appeals so much to people who may otherwise be social outcasts. I might make a good impression to you in real life (or not), but it doesn't mean the person with the most hysterical posts you've ever read would. And which one is really 'real'? My obsession is in full force now, like any child with a new toy on Christmas, but I am not about to forgo happy hour with friends or night of dancing.

However if one's life of reality sucks, I cannot blame people for making themselves to be who they want on their blog, or social networking media. All the more power to them. Just hopefully they make it out of their house one day so they can actually get laid.

Song of the Day: AYO Technology - 50 cent