Bloggers Ripple Effect

I likes it.

This morning, I’m catching up on the blogosphere thanks to my wonderful RSS feeds on Google Reader. I have ranted and raved about the wonders of Google Reader before and don’t intend to stop any time soon.

I see that Nick has posted a great blog entry and when I go to re-read it, I get a little notification saying : 1 person using Google Reader likes this. Click to see who out of pure curiosity because I’ve never noticed this happy-doo-dad of a feature before and much to my surprise, Chantal D ‘s name comes up.

My surprise wasn’t so much that Chantal liked it, but that the only thing (as far as I know) linking Chantal to Nick is... little moi. *squee* I have helped Chantal discover Nick’s blog therefore providing her with post upon post of entertainment and I’ve helped my friend Nick share his Blog with the world. Everybody wins!

Now, I don’t mean to take the credit if it’s not mine to have so please speak up if you two have this secret bond I’m unaware of.

As much as the interweb sucks sometimes when we think about identity theft, security issues or crime – I think it’s wonderful when it helps to bring people together.

Disconnected...

It scares me how hard it is to stay connected with the people we love in a world that is so focused on communications. I've been feeling really disconnected lately. I check my Facebook account every day, Twitter, email, other social networks, forums, RSS feeds, text messages, voice mail, I hang out with friends or talk to them on the phone... someone stop me!

I don't know if it's simply because I'm sick and tired of having a relationship that's limited to phone calls or online conversations and because he's coming home in a few days, I don't see the point in messaging or calling anymore. I'd rather wait until he's home to actually talk face to face. I feel like just cocooning into a wee ball in the corner until Friday -that would be pure bliss...

How are you supposed to know the best way to get a hold of someone with all this choice?! ei : When I need to tell Jf something, I need to think first if he's at work, consider the time zones, wonder if it's something that would be best dicussed on the phone or if an email would be better to keep track of ideas... then I can either message him on MSN, text him, call him, email him or message him on Facebook. Chances are he'd get the text alot quicker if he's not at work but if he is, an email would do the trick. If he's at home, I can message him on MSN to see if he's there, then if not, I'll message him on Facebook to make sure he gets it later. I know where/when to message him what/where because I know him and know his habits (somewhat)... This means that he needs to check ALL of these things to make sure he gets ALL the messages from everyone.

Salvation : RSS Feeds. I'm all for online networking (It would be kind of stupid of me not to be!) and I think it's awesome to have that freedom of expression. RSS feeds saved my life when it comes down to it! With the amount of work and energy I pour into these kinds of web-based communities, I don't have time to read everything that comes up or spend hours catching up on every last little detail. I enjoy what I do and I don't want to grow sick of it because I'm bitting off more than I can chew. I found a balance and the RSS feeds showed me the way.

We are robbing eachother of so much time. Why do we do it? To save time. We're creating "easier" ways to communicate and share but we're also creating more time consuming tasks. One step forward, two steps back, if you ask me!