The Art of Attraction

Surfing the Internet is an amazing activity.  So much information, so many possibilities, so many loose threads to be picked up on and followed to some hopelessly huge ball of yarn many millions of bits later.  It can be overwhelming to many people – which is why I prefer to ride the info-waves several hours each day.  Part research.  Part cultural study.  Part curiosity.  Part procrastination. 

I’m not easily suckered in to a site.  Either that’s because I’m lousy at surfing for the kinds of sites that would suck me in, or because I’m hopelessly weathered and jaded and callously indifferent to the quivering thoughts of others across the digital spectrum.  I’m not sure which is the better option, or more dignified – given that I’ve been a Netizen for over 15 years now!

But every now and then, a site catches my eye and fills me with hope and curiosity.  Not often, though.  Twice in the last year, to be precise.  The first time turned out to be a bust, as many new blogging efforts are.  Blogging is hard work if you take it seriously (which I clearly don’t, apparently).  And many people with grand designs and good intentions simply give up on it after a while. 

The latest one caught my eye last night though, through an advert on Facebook.  I won’t divulge the name just yet, because honestly, I can’t figure the site entirely out.  It doesn’t have a clear mission statement or raison d’etre, and while the entries are intriguing, they’re also vaguely random.  I was mostly caught by the title of the site, and now I’ve gone and registered and become somewhat involved, and I have no idea if I’ll regret or rue that wrecklessly impulsive decision in another week or so.  Time will tell.

But it highlighted for me that attraction – digitally, but probably otherwise – is calculated.  It isn’t always controlled.  As much as we can control it though, we do.  We primp and choose our clothing and our scents and whatnot in a calculated if sometimes subconscious effort to attract those we’d like to meet.  Popular culture exalts the idea of the unstoppable rush of emotions, the cathartic love-at-first-sight-sex-at-first-opportunity notion of romance that is appealing to sexual predators and teenagers (I would argue that in some ways, the differences – generally speaking – are thin).  But we ignore the fact that more often than not, what seems to be unlooked for, even unwanted attention, is carefully, meticulously planned for.  We may be surprised when it works, we may not like when it happens, and yet we are complicit even in our ignorance or naivete. 

So, to the person behind my new digital infatuation, I hope that you turn out to really be who you project. 

Then again, perhaps that’s a questionable thing to wish on anyone, including myself.