following strangers.

i came across this blog years ago. And i started to read the daily life of a complete stranger. They have a husband who is a musician in Tennessee who also had a blog. I followed a link onto myspace and became their "friend" on myspace too. i came across their flickr photos and took a moment or two to flip through their images. and then i managed to forget all about these people, because lets face it - i do not know them!

Today out of nowhere, with a random thought of them, i recalled these people and looked up their blog. They have it now blocked from outside viewing. it made me a little sad to not be able to see how they were doing. then i remembered their myspace page name (because i cleaned out my friends long ago and only kept the people i actually knew on my list or my very favorites). And there they both were. Two people i've never met, but feel like i know as well as my own "real" online friends. They had new blogs and new photos of her modeling career (she's now a blonde!) and new music to listen to. It was interesting to come across a page full of so much information about people i find interesting in their live, but who i've never actually met.

i wonder if people know, or care, that strangers are reading their information? Do they only put out there what they want other people to know about them? Are they even being their true self or just an act for the sake of the viewers? Should i feel strange that i follow complete strangers lives online?! Or is that the world that we now live in... half truths and half lives online. Does anyone actually really know a person IN PERSON anymore or have we gone to the way of technology communication only?

Some of my friends that i have not seen in years, i now know them again online. And does that mean that we are "friends" again? No. We talk, but only in random short messages. Not a true conversation. There is no "eye to eye" conversation. So to call someone online a true friend, is that fair?

These are things that i find interesting about where the world is now going. Maybe its time to take a step back and remember to just have a friend for the sake of having a friend in person. Nothing online, no exchange of e-mail address' or facebook friendships... just real world only. Can it even be done?!