Blogging in review

Okay, I've been blogging for a couple weeks now and something interesting stands out. Several of you who read this blog have started blogs of your own. That's all well and good, but has added an extra layer of communication to our relationships that I think is interesting.

LBG is a co-worker of mine who I talk to almost daily. We've known each other a couple years are have been known to have a beer together or share wine outside of work. We also go to lunch together fairly regularly. Now, in addition to the emails we exchange during the day and the time we spend at lunch, I can go out and read his blog posts to see what else he's rambling on about. We share a lot of common interests so this isn't a bad thing, but at what point do we reach communication overload within our friendly relationship?

Flippinflipper is the wife of a former co-worker of mine. She and her husband hang out regularly with my wife and I and we've known each other 4 or 5 years or longer. Now I have a new vehicle where I can read her random thoughts and they're quite amusing, but the same question applies.

Super-Cute is my wife who I get to listen to the whole time that we're at home together, plus dozens of emails and phone calls during the time we're apart. Now, in case I haven't had enough, I can go read her blog to see if she has something new to discourse on that I've missed while I was zoning out (note to self, have her keep a running list of all the things she wants me to remember so I can have someplace online where I can go look).

I'm not sure what this tells me about or friendships or how we communicate, but there's an interesting observation here somewhere. Given that we were perfectly happy with the level of communication in our relationships prior to starting blogs, how will it affect how we communicate going forward? Will our blogs replace other forms of communication we have with each other, like email and/or phone calls? Will we refer to each other's blogs for important announcements from each other instead of getting together to celebrate? Or are these blogs merely means to communicate add'l info that doesn't have the priority level of information that warrants a phone call or email? If the later, is this information that will enhance our relationships or merely overwhelm each other and hasten that point in time when we get bored with each other and move on?

I know that personally, I started this blog to communicate with friends and family because I'll be going to law school in the fall and may not have time for much of the personal interaction we enjoy today. I guess it's kind of like sending out a typed letter in Christmas cards telling everyone in your lives the same thing; it's useful info, but a cop out when it comes to maintaining a relationship.

This post hasn't turned out the way I intended it to, but that's not a bad thing. I'd wanted this to be a funny post about how we're all communicating too much, but I think it's turned into something more serious. I guess my point is this. All the electronic communication we do is fine and good, but let's be careful not to let it interfere with whatever interpersonal relationships we've established. I don't want to look back in a year and notice that I quit hanging out with someone because I started getting all the news in their life from their blogs instead of from them personally or because I became over inundated with personal information from them and couldn't handle it. If our blogs get in the way, lets quit reading them and go out for a beer. Then we can write for complete strangers and let them get bored with the mundane things we do in our daily lives instead of risking our friendships because of too much communication.