One world?

Ok, ‘rantish’ post alert! :P

Around this time nine years ago, I posted this entry in my earlier blog, some of you might have read it already. Funny how a lot of it, no almost all of it, still holds good. I’ve inserted my notes inline – kind of like walking through the experience with thoughts on it today.

A world apart

If age is in the mind, then the Internet has given this adage a whole new meaning. In the online world, despite age differences, there's a certain commonness. Take blogging for example. We visit each other, we talk, we laugh, cry, express ourselves, react; we have different sensibilities and points of view, but still bound together. There's something in it that makes us come to this world each day (ok, maybe not every day) with renewed vigour. You're down under, away from the blog for a few days, your fingers begin to itch (This might’ve reduced a bit – what with other things to keep us busy, FB, Twitter etc). You want to come back and make that connection with the rest of the online world (mostly true, right? Some of us still feel that need). It's amazing. Imagine if all of us had met at a party, say a real one. I’m sure in no time, we’d have broken up in small groups based on say, age or interests. Right? But here it's different. Here, you never age (ok, maybe these days we’re more aware of that; we tend to write things more relevant to our age; especially with young students and single folks who talk more about their relationships and insecurities). Even though you age physically, you're never too young or old to say something. There've been times I've gone through the 'by now cliched' quarter life crisis ( Ha ha, maybe it’s now time to change that to the even more clichéd ‘MID-LIFE’ crisis. Nah, I’m kidding), I have contemplated staying away from this online universe for a while, come to terms with who I really am (Yeah, there was a period when I was grappling with this thing. I was new to this experience and used to wonder about my real identity, and let me confess, have said stupid things to upset people on- and off-line. Thankfully, the picture is much clearer today). But like someone mentioned the other day, you are who you are, no matter where - online or offline. It shouldn't matter. Really, it shouldn't (Holds good today as well, only difference is, the online world has become a more acceptable sphere of interaction with the advent of social networking. I’m not really sure if we’ll reach saturation there, but for now that’s how it seems ).

I have friends outside the online world. I have a family that I love and care about a lot. Yet, there's also this small place where I go to unwind. I don't visit every day, my day job doesn't allow me to (Sigh, we all know that today the lines have almost blurred. One can be online 24/7 even when one’s not online. There is just too much bandwidth, both on computers and on mobile devices, right?). But gradually as I get older in this world of user names and comment boxes, I realize, this world is here to stay as well. I always wondered about a parallel world. What better example than this? It's a great place to be. And you guys are great friends to be with. (This more or less remains, though the circle is much smaller now. And I feel much older among the current crop ;-))

I like it here. And I love you guys. In my mind's eye? This world is sure as hell young and beautiful. And I hope I'll never leave here. (Well, what can I say? I still hope…though I’m not as sure as I was back then.)

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PS: Looks like I had a lot of thoughts  ;-)