And I guess ten years ago, it was probably true.
Cyberspace and the real world, were as far apart as cheese blocks and me (it's far because I'm craving one now, and don't have one. Maybe that metaphor doesn't make sense, but whatever. You get my point.)
But that's no longer the case. And hasn't been for awhile now.
It all started with blogs. The voyeuristic nature in people get stirred up when they stumble across blogs whose owners offer more than just a cursory glimpse into his/her lives. Don't you think the most intriguing reads are the ones where they write like no one's reading? The ones where you can imagine the sort of person he/she would be in real life.
Reading someone's blog can be a very personal affair.
I remember more than one occasion, stumbling across someone's blog, spending days reading it, and then actually bumping into the person in real life. Once, I was in a lift at my place in Melbourne. The lift doors opened, and in stepped this guy whose blog I'd been reading. I knew he lived in Melbourne through his blog entries, but had no idea he lived in the very same building that as I!
Anyway, he stepped in and I felt like I knew him forever. I knew what he had for dinner the night before, I knew where he went the weekend before. I knew his friends by name and face through the pictures on his blog, and that he had just celebrated his 26th birthday.
But yet I didn't know him.
The him I saw in person, didn't look anything like the friendly guy he came across as in his blog.
Then the lift doors opened, and he walked out.
It was a strange encounter. For me anyway.
But it's occasions like this that make me think that it's probably true I can sometimes be too quick to judge people on face value.
Just today I had another such moment.
There's a lady I know through work. Now we haven't been working together all that long, and to be honest, I think she's a bit of a strange cookie. In fact, I always stifle a laugh when she talks because I find her weird and a little off her rocker.
Today, on my way to dinner, I decided to surf FB on my phone. By some connection or another, I found myself ending up on her blog, and to be honest, I liked the person who wrote those entries.
She was neither weird nor strange. She was a mother with two loving children. Children who made her loving gifts for mother's day. She liked going for morning runs, and I could go on, but frankly, is just an all round smarter, sweeter person than I gave her credit for.
I felt ashamed for judging her.
And told myself I would make more of an effort to get to know people before judging in future.
But my point is this. It's scary how easy it is to access information about someone on the Internet. It's true we probably give away more than we should. But how much is too much?
And anyway, I'm not sure we can stop this digital revolution anywhere.
It's a decade too late.
