So I was watching The Lofters this evening. Hooo baby, talk about wankerville central. Okay, they're not all wankers, but they have that wankerish qualities to them occasionally. Don't we all though? I know I certainly do.

The Lofters, by the way, are Canada's version of MTV's The Real World, only instead of living on camera for a whole year and only have one show a week air on tv about it, The Lofters live with cameras literally in every corner of their, you guessed it, loft. (Hence the title "The Lofters" for the inherently slow witted). Their lives are being broadcast 24/7 on the internet, while still having one show a week about them. It's not that bad of a show if you're into that kind of thing. I hate to admit it too, but I am. I dig some of that kind of show because I like to watch people. Not in a voyeuristic kind of way, but in the asexual way. I like observing human behaviour. I think it's fascinating that people are willing to give up their privacy, on such a grand scale in the case of The Lofters, and what are they getting out of it?

Sure they get paid to do nothing for a year, but besides that, because I don't think the producers of any show of this nature would choose people who were doing it for the money. Fame? I think we all know how far celebrity takes you in Canada.

Which brings me to my next point, the experience of such a venture. Living with eight strangers, in a loft. Two people per room. Doesn't that sound intriguing to you? It does to me. Why? Because what they are doing on MTV's The Real World, or The Lofters, is much like what us diarists do don't we? We expose ourselves to strangers, allow them to read our thoughts, however personal or unpersonal they may be, and continue that process until we end the diary ourselves. This is our camera, and, and this is our depiction of ourselves. The only difference is that if we don't like our roommates, we simply have to turn off our monitors, or click the Back button. Did you know you burn calories by using your mouse? It's true.

So why have an on-line diary? Why live with cameras around you 24 hours a day - 7 days a week? I don't get paid for this, I don't think that that many people are actually interested in what I have to say. What I do think, is that I like the idea of people I don't know being allowed to see pockets of my psyche. Some days it's easier to talk to the collective You, than it is to the people around me. You don't judge, You probably don't even particularly care for anything I've said. You probably just stumbled here on a Yahoo or Google search gone wrong. But the fact that anyone, anyone in the world, can come here, read something I've written, and move on, is such a complex thing to understand.

This isn't so different from The Lofters. My only question is how do you determine when someone is being real, or when they think they're being real?

But remember, I am just a wanker.

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