Which do you prefer – Your online friends saying hi and introducing themselves to you when they bump into you at the streets, or receiving an email that says, “Hey Cmate, I saw you at the park yesterday. I was the girl who jogged past you in red pants.”

Erm, I can’t remember any red pants? Neither do I remember who jogged past me because there were more than 100 people in the park. Which exact minute and second did you jogged past me again? I hope I remember to put on my wrist watch the next time I go out. Better still, I should put on an additional alert mind to look out for people who may know everything about me; but I know nothing about them. Maybe I shouldn’t have posted my photo here in the first place.

These repeated incidents do make me wonder how superstars feel when they are going about their daily life. I’ll probably have one in a million who recognises me on the street; they’ll have at least 0.9million people going gaga over them when they enter McDonald’s. For example, Britney Spears recently waltzed into a McDonald’s at London to pick up lunch on her way to Manchester and customers were stunned. Stunned because a superstar actually enjoy fastfood, or stunned that she stood at the counter to make her own order? I can’t quite figure which is more stunning.

I am not a celebrity; maybe that’s why people don’t get stunned when they finally meet me in person. But it still freaks me whenever I receive emails that say ‘You look awful when you wear blue’ or ‘I think you are more ladylike that you think’ – Oh shites! Where was I spotted? It’s like playing the I-Am-Spotted game with a bunch of people who knows me more than I know them.

That aside, I’ll admit that I kinda like the experience. It reminds me that I may be answerable to myself but the whole busybody world is still watching me anyway. So if I walk out of my house in my PJs, I’ll risk receiving an email that laughs at the Mickey Mouse prints all over my clothes. If I walk into the cafe with my baggy jeans and boyish shirt, I’ll risk receiving a comment that says I am a tomboy. That explains why I have became more aware of the eyes watching over me.

If you are a blogger, would you recommend posting a photo of yourself in your blog? Trust me, it certainly adds a personal touch to it and online friends are able to associate with you better. But what if it leads to people recognising you at the streets? What if there will be more mere coincidence of them bumping into you and freaking you out (or not)? Here’s the most important question I’ve always wanted to ask: Does blogging makes you a superstar in the small community that reads your blog?

Originally written by Gina Yap Lai Yoong © 2009

Popularity: 10% [?]

Related posts:

1. Bloghopping
2. The Chosen Walk