I admit it! I’m an lurker. A constant, avid lurker. This means I scroll through multiple outlets of social media including Twitter, Facebook, and several (dozen?) blogs on a regular basis, but I rarely (if ever) post in response to something, comment, or even @reply. Urban Dictionary has some interesting definitions for it, many of which apply to me.
I’m embarrassed!
I’m one of the only twenty-somethings I know who’s relatively shy about social media and meeting people via the medium of the internet. The weird thing is, this seems a bit off for my generation. I’m old enough to remember the Time Before the Internet but too young to have done much phone conversing with friends as a teen/college student — not when there was the beauty, speed, and simplicity of instant messaging, emails, chats, and social websites. (Though I’m too old to be an avid texter. Texts confuse me, mostly, and I am yet again ashamed to admit that.) So because of this, I have absolutely no qualms about lurking about the internet, checking up on friends and learning about new people.
In real life, however, I’m completely different. I can’t sit in a group of people I vaguely know and stay quiet (or at least, not for long). I’m probably too outgoing, sometimes — in that nerdy-awkward way — and when I describe myself as shy, many people who know me in real life laugh — laugh — because definitionally I’m not shy… except, apparently, when it comes to the internet.
Is this a bad thing, though? Perhaps. I follow and I have a really great sense of many people I’ve never met in real life via the medium, but because I don’t engage in a dialogue, they may not even realize I exist. But I’m also afraid, in this internet age of lower barriers to communication, of coming off as too pushy, crazy, or obsessive. (Which, admittedly, I know I may come off as if I really did throw myself into commenting to my heart’s content.) There’s a happy medium, and I’m sure I’ll ease into finding it, but I haven’t found it yet. Baby steps, they say, and that applies as much to this as to everything. I am trying, and I’ve been trying over the last few months, the last year, to really dig into the internet world. I’ll get there.
But until I ease myself into a more active internet social lifestyle, I’ll probably just keep lurking.
Baby steps. Baby steps.
Kristan
/ 24 February 2010Meh, I’m an awful texter too.
But you? Shy?* I vaguely remembered the You’ve-Been-Accepted-To-CMU chat rooms and message boards, and you being relatively active on them. Am I imagining that??
Funny enough, I’m sort of the opposite of you. I’m not shy about meeting people online AT ALL. I comment on anything if I have an opinion about it. (Which is, like, everything.) For me it’s a lot easier than meeting new peeps in real life, so I embrace the lesser of two evils, hahaha.
I think baby steps are fine, though. I mean, there’s no requirement that you be particularly vocal online. Just present.
*I hadn’t yet read the part where you say people in real life will laugh at you calling yourself shy. :P
Also, even though we were sort of friends in college, I feel like we’ve gotten SO much closer online over the past year, and now I’m like, Omg how weird is it going to be when we meet up in person again? Like, we totally know each other, but we never hung out in person like we hang out online now, you know? Ah well. I’m sure we’ll get over any awkwardness (if there is any) quickly enough. :)
.-= Kristan´s last blog ..Links & opportunities =-.
E. F. Danehy
/ 24 February 2010I’ve absolutely been thinking that, too! Ah! And I do envy your ease at interjecting yourself in the online sphere. One day I too shall prevail!