Hypercompendia

(Some thoughts on this originally posted on Spinning: The Pros and Cons of Social Networking)

Many years ago I belonged to a global group called The Society of Creative Anachronism. As Lady Susanna of Rivendell (the title of 'Lady' conferred upon me by the East Kingdom for achieving Grand Master Bowman status [medieval times didn't concern themselves with the problem of gender-specific labels]) I ran around in leather and fur, fed a horde of seventy folk camped out in our backyard (living with Sir David at the time), stumbled around camps in the wee hours shouting "Rape, pillage, and burn!" and traveled to Pennsylvania for annual war.

The SCA is still alive and well–though I no longer play–and is only one of many such playacting groups that people take part in on weekends or whenever they wish to escape into another world away from desks, numbers, bosses, and traffic. I used to try and guess why particular people joined these things, the Trekkies, Dungeons and Dragons, etc.; it seems that it allowed them to get one step closer into fantasy life than movies, tv, and daydreaming could offer. It allowed one to pick and choose a lifestyle, without the restraints of reality.

Nowadays, we can do this so much more easily by internet connections and in particular, online gaming, creating a persona that is not inhibited by our own physical limitations, open to whatever our minds can conceive. Think World of Warcraft, Second Life where you don't have to be sixty years old, or be overweight or covered in acne, or a timid mouse that folks push around in reality. Our weblogs may be personal sharing, and yet they need not be really us but instead, a product of our imagination as to what we wish to present to the public. We may seek out groups to join via weblog communities, or social networking such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or any of the growing number of specific and topical groupings formed by like minds seeking each other.

More later, but I'm leading up to the world getting smaller via internet connection even as it separates us in society.