RE: Going Legit: The gap between blog and reality
I'd really be interested to know what people think of me in person after reading what I have to say in posts and comments day in and day out. I think I'm putting out an authentic version of myself, but when it's all text and screen, can it be totally authentic without the flesh and bones, the vocal tone, the nonverbal body language and cues?
I don't know. Can it?
I do have a tendency to be a little more reserved at times. I don't know that I always type exactly what I want to say. I know I end up saying things on the spur of the moment in person that I generally end up rethinking and either modifying or deleting before I let it go here.
So, I've wondered for a long time how I am perceived.
At the same time, I've tried to take people here at face value. I don't even know the names of most people, since anonymity is king. And yet, some of them seem like people I'd like to hang around with in real life. How do I know who they are or what they're really about? I don't.
That's probably going to be the ongoing plague of the online world. We will only see what others want us to see, and vice versa. And at the same time, we can be as authentic as we know how to be, and still end up coming off different in real life. Not sure why that is, but I expect that if I were able to show up to SteemFest 3, I would hear more people saying, "You're not what I expected," even though my face is what people see on my comments, and my demeanor is basically the same.
However, I guess there's the possibility of the same thing happening to me with them, even though they've been as genuine as they know how to be. So we have the deliberate facades, and then the expectations or perceptions that we come up with for others that will probably be off base to some degree too.
All of that leading to your reasoning behind meeting people. To find out if there is more to it behind the authenticity portrayed in words, and likewise, the facade.
I don't think so but, meeting in person can add context and depth to the writing. reading and then meeting can deepen the view and create a better connection/relationship between writing and reader.
I find this too and even though I am skeptical in general of most things, there are people who seem authentic and it is hard to be objective. I generally take the position of, I can hang out with anyone once :)
Perhaps this speaks of them, not you. Perhaps they expect people to be different because they are?
re: meeting in person...can deepen the view
Hey, @tarazkp. I suppose that's what we hope for, that meeting people will give us the genuine article, or at least closer to who that person is than what we may get from their posts, comments, or messages.
re: hang out with anyone once
Very true. Over the years I've gone from giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, to being too cautious, to basically deciding that regardless of who they are, I'm just going to be me. I don't have anyone else to be. Sometimes that draws out the real them. Sometimes it doesn't.
re: speaks of them
I would say it does speak more about them. And sometimes the real us onscreen isn't quite the same as the real us in person, too. I've seen someone's face or heard their voice first, and it's amazing how sometimes, face and voice don't match up.
Regardless, if I do end up meeting any one that I'm currently connected with on Steemit in person, I will be me, and go from there. Can't really make them be them. It'll be great if it's not awkward the entire time for whatever reasons, but rather, we pick right up where we left off online. :)