Congratulations! The IRS has accepted your federal return.

Thanks H&R Block!

Over the past month or so I’ve finally come to the realization that people actually read this stuff. I know that sounds silly but I think I’ve been operating inside of a bubble of naïveté, thinking that this stuff just goes into the collective hive mind of the Internet never to be seen again. Sure, there are stats (for what they’re worth) and comments and other interactions that clearly point to the fact that people pay attention but it never really registered that all of this has some kind of grand purpose until a family friend asked about a dilemma I had written about on this blog.

I had completely forgotten that I have (and promote, probably a bit too heavily) a blog.

“How did you know about that?” said the absent-minded blogger.

That’s when it finally clicked. All of this stuff – the blog posts, the tweets, the podcasts, the status updates – it all matters. People follow this stuff because they care. Or, at least I hope they have some kind of genuine interest. It’s hard to properly put into well-thought sentences but I never really considered that all of these extremely personal social media-y experiences would matter to anyone else. I never really considered what happens after someone reads a blog post or watches a YouTube video.

It all points to something more than just sharing a thought or two on a harmless blog post. There’s more to this than expressing frustrations with diabetes or celebrating relationships or being silly for no good reason.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with all of this but I keep coming back to the idea that all of this matters. Yea…that’s a good place to start.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with this minor revelation so I’ll just be glad that I’m getting something back at the end of tax season.

Also, quick poll for those of you going to Friends For Life: Yay or Nay to Business Cards?