Lurking in Blogland

Apparently, in the Land 'o Blogs, there's a community for every hobby/interest/fetish you could imagine. For me, I guess that would be the CommunKnitty. Hee hee. Not really that clever... I saw it on a knitting blog. Although I haven't investigated it much, you can join a webring, which joins websites and blogs for people with the same interests. I haven't joined a webring yet. I LURK. There are certain knitting blogs I read daily and I click on other knitbloggers' links to see if other people have anything interesting to say or are working on cool projects. I don't trade knitting tips with other bloggers or go to yarn swaps. Very non-commital. I get to see what's going on in the knitting world without having to really "participate".

Is this wrong? I think this behavior pretty much how I've lived my life. Lurking on the fringes. The observer. Staying anonymous. Except with friends, of course. I could easily go to a party and just listen/observe without interjecting too much and still have a good time. In a group dynamic, you need to have the quiet ones too. Imagine if everyone in the group was loud!

I think I get the quiet trait from my dad, who is generally reserved but when he has something to say, it's usually pretty funny or poignant. In recent years, however, he's come out of his shell and is often the one chatting away amongst his golfing buddies.

Maybe that will happen when I'm old and retired. For now, I'll just lurk.