Run Ins, Both Real and Virtual
Speaking of Web 2.0, I’ve had 3+ not necessarily unwelcome, but unprepared for run-ins this week. One was on the street, “IRL” as we say on the internets. The other 2+ were online. People who live nowhere near me popped up in a way I wasn’t expecting, and I wasn’t ready for it. This is one of the both fortunate and unfortunate aspects of life in the small town that is the internet. I can run into exes I don’t want to see, or long lost friends I’ve wondered about for years. I think that on the whole, I like it, but it makes social negotiations awful tricky. I have to set my filters, friend levels, contact lists, etc, so that I’m not running into people I don’t want to run into when I’m least prepared. And sometimes I don’t like the ways I have to set them, because I’m filtering out more than I want to…
As always, the cardinal rule is “Never accept an invitation to go crazy”. If a repeated run-in is causing me undo stress, gotta do what I gotta do. As my friend Jason has always said, “It’s just the internets”.
Comment by Smoooochie
May 17, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
Your dad and Jason are right. Put it all into perspective. It’s rare. It’s random. It’s a blip in your matrix. The less power you give these things the less power they have.
How do you prepare for all the little bumps in the road? You can’t so relax a little and they won’t hurt so much.