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I just noticed Claire's post from Tuesday, and realized that I recognized her username from the Bryn Mawr 2010 Livejournal community (community.livejournal.com/brynmawr2010). Because we never really interacted online, and I do not follow her blog, I did not have the subsequent experience of realizing that I knew someone online as well as in the non-electronic world. It was still a strange experience; I almost want to compare it to accidently bumping into someone in one place, and then finding that they are a regular part of your everyday life somewhere else (More concrete example: You step on someone's toe at a concert, and turn around and apologize. At the beginning of next semester, you find yourself sitting across from them in class).

My second reaction was a bit more complex. At first, I wanted to reply with an "Ooh, ooh! I remember you! Do you recognize me?" and post a link to my Livejournal. But then I realized that I do not want to put the link to my Livejournal up on this forum; it's part of the strange, hypocritical nature of (some, myself seemingly included) personal blogs/bloggers, where I am fine with some stranger stumbling upon the entries I have left unprotected, but not all of you. I've protected most of my more recent posts, but you can still see the angst-ridden posts I wrote between the ages of 14-17; you can also learn when and why my last romantic relationship ended and what I think I would do if I were not attending college (These last two things, among others, are unprotected because I wanted to keep a few friends without Livejournals updated on the major happenings in my life). It would make me very uncomfortable to see you all on Tuesday if I knew you would connect even the unprotected things I've written in my lj to the non-electronic me. And I really couldn't tell you why it would make me uncomfortable, as I choose to be this open potentially to strangers. The best explanation I can come up with is that it is, as is quoted in "Blogging as Social Action" (http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html) on Japanese blogs, "karaoke for shy people." On my blog, I can be the person I usually only reveal to my closest friends, not the shy, polite, studious person I can't seem to escape being in front of most others. There is something very liberating in this.