Do You Lurk?

Sometimes I forget just how big the world is - the Internet has a way of distilling it, so to speak. For example, some of the bloggers I read on a daily basis are located all over the country and overseas. Yet with the click of a button, I can read their thoughts and ideas.

Blogging, MySpace, Facebook, and other social areas have further reduced the distance between us. In many ways, this is wonderful - people are connecting and sharing ideas like never before. Unfortunately, there is also a downside to this - it's a lot easier to insult someone, air your negative opinion, and generally be nasty to others when we're all sitting behind a computer instead of talking face to face.

When I look at my SiteMeter, I often marvel at how people got to my blog, at what search words they type in, what country they're from, etc. And it also brings up the question of lurking. I have many more visitors (as I'm sure most of us do) who don't comment than those who do. I'll admit, there are times when I'll visit a different blog and not leave a comment. And for me, it's because blogs are personal. I would rather visit a few times, get to know the person first, and then leave a comment rather than just comment and then forget to visit again.

(I just realized that if you look at the word "lurk" for a long time, it begins to look and sound really, really weird...or maybe I just haven't had enough caffeine yet)

With the impersonal nature of the Internet (to a certain extent) and the ease of being able to come out of de-lurk mode, why is it so hard for some of us to actually "de-lurk?"

Interested in your thoughts...(and yes, this is a call to come out of "lurk" mode!)