A couple of days ago, -R- of And You Know What Else contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a last minute Blog Share for November and, of course I jumped at the opportunity.  I had a really great experience with the last one and welcomed the chance to do the anonymous thing again.  Except, well…. I kind of phoned it in on this one.  I didn’t really mean to but check this out:  I had a whooooooole post about halfway written about fear and Murphy’s Law and how Murphy’s Law likes to eff up my life whenever it could and I swear to god, the keyboard wigged out.  The space bar, it stuck down and wouldn’t stop spacing things in my word doc.  And it was so bad that I had to force a shut down on the computer.  That’s right: as I was writing about Murphy’s Law fucking with me, it fucked with me.  Big. Time.

So I kind of chickened out, decided not to tempt fate and phoned it in.  I officially apologize to whoever gets my half assed post!

I really like the post I was given to put up here and I hope you will shower whoever this is with your own thoughts and insights and comments.  I know that last time I did this, I haunted my post’s site for a few days just soaking up the comments.

So, without further ado…

You know that show Intervention? Well, I might need to go on it for an Internet addiction.

I’m afraid to say it, but I have become invisible in my own life. Instead I read about what other people’s lives are like. Thus I have turned into someone who is more present online than IRL (in real life).

I blog

I tweet

I Facebook. Which isn’t a verb.

I chat on IM

I don’t communicate face to face much

I don’t socialize with breathing people much

My phone skills have gone to crap

When I read a post by a blogger saying she is divorcing her husband, I feel as bad for her as I would if a friend IRL told me she was dealing with that. The blogger sometimes will open up more than a friend IRL will and sometimes I know more about her divorce than that of my friend. This might mean that the blogger pours her soul onto the Internet. Or it might just mean I am way too involved in what someone I don’t know is dealing with.

A Facebook friend who is not a “real” friend but an online friend asks for prayers for a sick loved one. And then I remember a real-life friend whose mother just got out of the hospital and think I should call him to see how his mom is doing. But it’s 1 am so I decide to call him later. My Facebook friend receives my instant attention though. I will reply to her status or send off an email sending prayers to this person I have never met.

Why is it that I feel more left out when I don’t get invited to a Broad Summit, or a tweet-up than I do about the weekend trip to the Jersey shore some friends took – the trip I heard about only after they got home? I can’t blame them for not inviting me because I am slowly disappearing into the black hole of the Internet.

A real-life friend celebrated her daughter’s first birthday party a couple of months ago. I missed it because I was traveling. I haven’t seen the pictures of the cake mooshing or the present opening from her party, or even given her the present I have, but on a daily basis I will see pictures from bloggers, putting me at their child’s birthday party.

I keep hearing about how all this online activity is contributing to the breakdown of communication and real relationships. It’s happening to me and I need to stop it. How and why did I start looking into this magic box filled with people for companionship and take the real people for granted?

What if the Internet shut down? Implausible as it may sound, what would I do if that happened, and what if it was a long-term thing? It makes me wonder if my real friends would be there, welcoming me out of my hermitude, or if they will have moved on.

I can’t let that happen. Things are happening in real life as much as they are online. Babies, weddings, honeymoons, divorces, new jobs, layoffs, new homes, ilnesses, successes and failures. I don’t want to miss it, and I know that a friend in need would have me at their side in a snap. But what if I miss that? What if they need me but I have distanced myself so far they don’t call? I already know I am missing the droll day to day stuff.

I have exaggerated in this post to make a point here, and I am not as awful a friend as I might sound. I keep in touch with the real people in my life – albeit not as much as I should or used to – and I know everyone is healthy and doing fiine.

I wrote this post to see if anyone else experiences this, even if just temporarily. And if so, how do you dig yourself out of it and become a more active participant in life? Besides the obvious – just leaving the computer and doing it.

Here are the other blogs participating in this round of the Blog Share.  Check them out!

Not the Daddy
O is for Olson
Red Red Whine
Rediscovering Me
Reflections in the Snow-covered Hills
The Reluctant Grownup
Sauntering Soul
Serendipity Now
Snarke
So, This Is a Treadmill
Thinking Some More
Time for Change
Together They Come
Wondering and Pondering
And You Know What Else
Andrea Unplugged
Arctic-ulate
Bright Yellow World
Bwildered
Catheroominations
Did I Say That Outloud?
Dispatches from the Failed Mommy Club
Full of Snark
Heidikins
Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men
Just Below 63
The Little Goat