Speaking vs. Writing Style

I was told recently that I have a very active mind. For some reason this surprised me, I suppose I have always assumed that most people's minds are like my own. But the person who told me this, seemed to think it unusual. (But then if I think of what this person does for a living I can understand where he was coming from, he deals with people who have very inactive minds, )

I am not sure I would call it active, there are times that the strangest things catch my fancy and I have to know more. But there are also many times when I am so bored I can't keep focused on anything....or maybe this is a symptom of ADD, which I keep getting accused of showing symptoms of. I didn't particularly notice the boredom reaction until I started reading so many blogs, there are some blogs that I love to read, and I can read the entire blog, well, maybe skim is a better word, but I do read in depth that which catches my fancy. But there are also nights when I will hop from blog to blog, website to website, not being able to stay focused or get interested in any of them....perhaps it is a mental exhibition of those days I used to notice a physical need to keep moving, feeling antsy, nothing satisfying my need for stimulus.

Anyway, don't really understand the reason it came together, but I started thinking about the way we speak, and write. I pretty much write as I speak, I use the same words, whether speaking or writing, I ramble when I write, I ramble when I speak, I lose my place when I speak, at least with the written word (instant messenging) I can go back and see what I wrote so that it will jog my memory....anyway......

In reading blogs written by such diverse people that we all are online, I have noticed a few things...

If a blog post is written in a conversational tone or comedic tone, I will stay-tuned even if the grammar or the spelling isn't so great. But if someone has decided to write some fiction, or express an opinon, if it is written in what I think of as a childish, less mature writing style I will dismiss it, and sometimes dismiss the writer too. How unfair that is.

Some people are blessed with the ability to put down on paper (hmmm that particular phrase is a bit outdated isn't it?) or type, in a style similar to how they speak, how they think. But there are also many people who do not have that skill, they may have brilliant minds, they may speak quite intelligently, but when writing, for whatever reason it comes across as less intelligent, immature, it is as if they cannot get the words from brain to fingers to blog.

So I have decided to be a bit more fair, try not to judge by writing style, everyone has something to say, some are just better at it than others. They are still trying to get their ideas across, to say what they have a need to say.

But it does make me wonder about some of the bloggers out here in this wonderful blogosphere, does Pamela speak as she writes? Is she as funny, and offbeat in real life, (or as Lime recently described it.....our 3D world)? Is Phil that funny and sometimes facetious? Is Poly as poetic and introspective? Is houseboatbob really that caught up in the world of big-boobed blondes (smiles here)? Or if you read my other blogs is sex really the beall and endall of my world? Are the bloggers who only post pictures of themselves on their blogs, or post the cute little bloggy things (like the quizzes I find so addictive at times).... that shallow, or do they just not have the need to express their thoughts and feelings?

Some blogs are journals, maybe just the daily happenings of someone's life, some blogs are written as a way of letting out our inner demons, or used as a form of creativity, they become an artform themselves. Some blogs are used I think to let our online friends know what is going on in our 3D lives (I do like that expression better than real-life vs online life) when we don't have the time or the inclination to share that in email or in an im.

I think I am questioning so much of this, because until we get to know the person behind a blog, we form an opinion of who they are by what we read, and sometimes that impression truly is only one dimensional. It is hard to remember that.

The people I have gotten to know more of, the ones I have established online friendships with, I know there is so much more to them than what they write. Guess I am telling myself, not to form too much of an opinion of someone just because I have read their blog. There are a few of us out here that keep more than one blog (my last count was 6), and with those, we do see more than one side of the person. So we can get a feel for who they are, but we still don't really know them.

But then again, do we ever really know anyone, even the people in our 3D lives?