Fake and paranoid is the answer to blogger

Firstly, I acknowledge that many true friendships and even true love had been forged on the internet. But what I am going to write here is purely my thoughts on the blogging side of things.

About a month ago, I wrote ‘The internet is a dangerous place‘. Many people cannot decipher what I was trying to say and whom I was referring to. It does not matter to me. Because these very people whom I was referring to are the ones who do not understand.

It is a vicious cycle. Many of us, including myself, tend to be easily misled. And often, we take things too personally. Though many bloggers tend to write in this tone ‘I do not care and do not even bother to read yadda yadda yadda’, they went on to commit the same mistake. They blogged that they do not care? Shit! If you do not care, why ler go and write it out? Isn’t that like pot calling the kettle black? Or putting on the clown hat, big rubber nose and stripe shirt?

Remember the April Fool prank played by Mike and Doc? Have we learnt nothing? Now, I see that many people are talking about Hustler’s Fake Diaries. Come on! Why do we make an issue out of it? Hustler had entertained us with many refreshing stories and I think that is as far as we should go. So what if Hustler is a female? What if Hustler is actually me? Horrors! And so what if Hustler’s photos aren’t real? (Hustler – I hope you understand what I am trying to prove ya? No, I am not impersonating you. LOL!)

Ultimately, what I want to say is we, Malaysians, are too nice and kind. We are too polite. Too trusting. This sopan-santun kinda way fits us physically. I love being Malaysian and very proud of it.

But when we are online, on the internet, these rules do not apply. We cannot take all the blogs we read too seriously. Only face value. Put on the alert antennae all the time. Don’t fall prey again to hoax, taunt and jokes and get work up. Right now, most of the bloggers’ readers/commentors are our own Malaysians – the polite and nice ones. Have we ever wondered what will happened if blogs are open to the straight-forward, throw it right at your face and don’t give a damn ‘non-Malaysians’?

I had seen some Malaysian blogs like Messy Christian and Invisible Footprints with international comments. I admire these two bloggers and their stand.

As a blogger/someone who runs an online community, I have two principles. One is to live with my own set of rules and second is to stand by people whom I believe in. Though I do get hurt when these people aren’t exactly living up to my expectations, I don’t regret because I know I had given them my best.

These are all wisdoms taught by one wise, veteran blogger. Though I had refused to believe him, I do see the light now. In as much as we want to be the real sopan-santun Malaysians, we must also learn to be the fake and paranoid bloggers. And hope I can share this wisdom with all who agree.

**Having said all the above, I still love to meet fellow bloggers. We had a great morning today in McD. I brought along my #3 son and he is already asking me when he can meet those kor-kor and cheh-cheh again. He was so chummy with Chee Aun. LOL! I forgot to mention that in my earlier blog, #3 (9rys old) is the cameraman.

Mrs. T of Canada is receptive to the idea of linking bloggers on the webcam. Now, shall we seriously think about that? Do it on June 6th on International Bloggers Day. All of us gather at a cybercafe and blog simultaneously! After all, Malaysia Boleh, right? KL, Melaka bloggers, apamaciam, game for it?**

11 thoughts on “Fake and paranoid is the answer to blogger

  1. It’s a two way thing.

    Readers should not be too trusting – yes, to a degree, but not blindly and completely

    The blogger should attempt as best as (s)he can to convey the truth.

  2. I dunno who told me this– “Think of every stranger as a bad person at first, then you wont ‘rugi’..” (on 2nd thought, maybe that’s a TV line. Haha.)

    We wont know who’s real or fake wif only a first glance, esp online. But I was thinking, can a person be fake and paranioid ALL the time?

    If a person is putting up a disguise abt his/her life, I don’t really mind. I’ll juz read on, abt the ‘fake’ him/her. Bt i’ll b cautious as well.

  3. “We cannot take all the blogs we read too seriously. Only face value. Put on the alert antennae all the time.” I agree with what u wrote here. Some blogs are run like a magazine. There are a mix of fiction and truth and there are also blogs that are created by their authors to express their feelings and at the same time, to entertain others.

  4. Me, I spell out my objectives in my First 2 Posts — desiderata.happiness is my guidepost in life sifu Max Ehrmann); desiderata.civilsociety is about Malaysia’s socio-political-economic issues; desiderata.english is to promote the English language. I hesitate to folow what you spell out, otherwise, why bother to engage ourselves if we don’t start on the premise of TRUST?

    My final objective — desiderata.truth — is rare and occasional when I spy some insight into what Truth of the matter is about; like this little first Comment on thy blog. Hope we engage in more democratic discourse, and yes, thanks for your franknes, that in itself is a starting point for our little converse, heart-to-heart.

  5. I’m just gonna post by dua sen regarding the Hustler Fake Diaries issue. And spread it around in ppl’s comment boxes. šŸ™‚ Hope you don’t mind.

    If you read kennysia.com, you’d probably know by now that I’m a big wrestling fan. I’ve been watching WWE (then-WWF) since Primary 5 when Bret Hart Vs Shawn Michaels was the biggest match ever took place and although I stopped watching now due to lack of Astro, I still follow wrestling news online.

    Sometime around Form 3, I discovered the internet. I joined wrestling chatrooms and generally mingle with people who shared the same interests with me. Around this time, someone spreaded words about how wrestling is fake and all the moves and how storylines were scripted. I was upset and determined to prove them wrong. So I searched around the Internet and everywhere people are telling me that wrestling is indeed fake. It was all a ‘show’ where two wrestlers act like they hated each other in the ring, but backstage they were really good friends who share the same car, same plane, same wife, etc. (kidding about the wife part)

    I felt cheated. Why do they want to create fake storylines and act like they hated each other?

    Mick Foley, the wrestler best known as Mankind, went on TV and admitted that wrestling is fake. Wrestling is called sports entertainment. Sports, because the wrestlers need to be physically fit to be able to compete in it. Entertainment, because when if the show isn’t entertaining no one is going to watch it.

    Yes, everything in wrestling is exaggerated where a punch usually miss the target by a mile. But the moves are real, the injuries are real, and sometimes the emotions are real. The events, the emotions that they portray do happen in real life, but the WWE turn it up a few notches and then it becomes entertainment.

    There are many who came out and laughed saying wrestling is ‘fake’.

    But hey, so are movies. Even movies that claimed they are ‘based on true stories’ are still the reality turned up a few notches. Yet people still pay money and watch them. Why?

    People watch movies because they walk into the cinema with the mentality that goes “Hey I know these things are fake. But what if its real? Shit, if its real then its gonna be so cool!” These are the people that walked out of the cinemas more entertained than the ones who said “I know its fake lah! See how come the car exploded for no reason! Aiya boring shit!” These are the kind of selfish people who loves to point out every shortfall in the movie just so they can spoil it for others and they themselves be entertained.

    I hope you see the analogy here.

    What I’m really trying to say is that the Hustler Diaries is the pro-wrestling equivalent of the blogging community.

    Sure his stories may be fake. But what if its real?

    Shit, if its real then its gonna be so cool!

  6. Haiyo, blogger only care about themselves what, and to increase traffic, ppl do anything! Including selling off ones dignity.

  7. Frankly HUstler had entertained us. so I dont care if he faked those stories.. Big Deal . It would only upset me if Hustler and I were email buddies and he lied to me.. Thats a different issue. So are we to get all uptight if we read the Enquirer or any of those tabloids becaue we found out they “lied” Good attitude Lilian..:) People should lighten up and enjoy life

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