Cripes. Now I'm Shy
I received an email from a fellow Bear Blogger yesterday. (Hi, rat!) It definitely made me smile to have somebody reach out and say howdy. I think it used to be much easier to make friends on the Internet. Back in the early 2000s, I met tons of people through Yahoo groups and other similar places. Many of those people are still my friends today. It doesn't seem to happen as often anymore.
I've spent tons of time on Reddit, for example, but never made a single friend there. I guess the voice of the individual doesn't really come through as much - at least for me.
Bear blogs, on the other hand, seem to make the people behind the keyboard more real. The community is still small enough that if you lurk at all on the Discover Most Recent Posts page, you see familiar names on the list. I like that.
On the other hand, when I've posted here in the past, it didn't feel like anybody I knew was reading what I was writing. Now, I know there's at least one person out there who can connect "me" to these scribblings. Gotta admit, I'm a little bit self conscious now - but in a good way. Bear feels a bit like the Internet of old. I like that. It makes me feel "seen".
I look forward to "meeting" more of you in the future.