Phasing Out

I think it's time to move on from people online, all but a few close friends. Because I just don't see a need to pretend anymore with people. I have made a small number of good friends online over the past couple of years. I've also made a number of contacts through the net who aren't friends, they are just part of a group that died back when Stickam ended and I've picked a few more up along the way. Some of these people I liked, some not, however the pretense has gone on long enough and now I don't feel the need to humour people by making small talk with them or pretending I like their videos or whatever else might be expected.

I asked in my last blog what people liked in a blog and one of the points often used was about using a blog to vent grievances about people and specifically, when people vent those thoughts ambiguously. I think I agree with it. I am certainly guilty of it, however I would at the very least defend myself by saying that the vast majority of my grievances were related to close friends and as such, the manor in which I said things were largely gentile and nothing ultra personal was used. It however can be construed as nasty and unhelpful and so I think it's probably the right time to wrap up this log because I haven't much else to blog about other than my feelings and unfortunately that would include venting and I think it would be even worse if I named people.

I think it'll do me good to be away from certain aspects of the Internet. The nastiness is one of those things, some people are obviously very blunt in their language to people and are outright pricks to people. In everyday life you tolerate people who publicly take digs for as long as you can to see if they give up, but one day you think fuck it and punch them in the face. The easiest thing to do is just remove yourself from aspects of the net that you don't like.

I'm still considering how to go about this. I'm not sure about twitter and whether I delete it, or get a new account, because I do actually like twitter. I wont leave YouTube, I may make occasional videos if I get an idea, but I lost the will to care about the 'community' a long time ago, as many others have.

So I think I'll phase this thing out so I can get used to it rather than deleting everything, getting bored and then going back again. The blog is gone, I'll leave this post up for a day or two and then make it only viewable to me. The rest of it, who knows, I think obviously every pocket of friends shares various responsibilities for nastiness and backbiting. But I think it's time we all just think, lets stop pretending.

I guess as a final note to everyone. I have a few close friends, I care very much about them. If I stop making an effort with you, it may not necessarily be because I dislike you. I'm cutting of the edges. We all feel obligated to make small talk but we're not friends, friends are people who you are there for and care about their problems. A quick 5 minute IM on Skype every few weeks does not qualify and that shouldn't be something to be upset about, we all have our select few and although you may wonder, 'what's the harm in casual acquaintances?' I say nothing. However by chit chatting with one person, I then feel obliged to chat to everybody and in all reality nobody really cares, chit chat is a release of boredom for a few minutes. I wouldn't turn my back on real friends.