Internet/Real Life Etiquette #4?
Do tell, gentle Reader... What is the proper etiquette when one runs into someone they only have read about on the internet? With each new local blog I add to my daily reading, the more I worry that I might run into one of these bloggers in public. I worry because it would definitely add a weird dynamic. One can not simply approach another and say Hello, I read your blog, can one? The reader would be pegged as a stalker, I assume, or at least rather stalker-like. But then, how to explain why the reader is staring so strangely at the blogger?
I suppose the reader would have to ignore the blogger. Or, perhaps better, not ignore the blogger him/herself, but ignore the fact that the reader has any idea who the blogger is. This could, if executed correctly, play out the best. The reader could even casually meet the blogger this way. But...
What if a friendship develops? At what point in the friendship could/should the reader admit to foreknowing the blogger? Is it at all possible for such a situation to not be awkward?
Finally, does this all lead to the conclusion that I can never become friends with the people who write the blogs that I read? If so, I should stop reading a lot of blogs.
Posts
January 13, 2008 at 12:13 AM
I met one of my favorite bloggers in person once, quite by accident, at a party. She was flattered that I read her blog, and happy to just talk and talk at me about various things that were similar to what she puts on the blog. It was harmonious. I'd imagine most bloggers are that way. This blogger and I didn't really "feel" each other enough to have a friendship develop, but I don't see why one shouldn't.
I've met a bunch of people through my blog, but none of these have ever become actual, non-internet friends. Yet.