connection without connection

it has come to my attention that i have no idea what tags are. i just noticed my tag lists are more like subtitles than searchable info-bits.....i'm ignorant, as well, as to the exact nature and protocol of the interlocked web of "friends" within the web.
although i have used email for ever so long, but not much else online, the new "social networking" aspect of the internet is  very odd territory.
i am learning by doing, and observing the many clues that these new forms require in order to interact.
it's like being at my first jr.high dance. who's gonna ask me to dance, and how do i follow the steps?

actually, the social aspect is rather strange. you cannot just just say hello to someone, as you would at a
party...you must friend, or invite to be friended, with formal invitations by email, all ways to keep things
secure and private. which is the opposite of how human interactions happen.

imagine a really interesting guy at a friend-of-a -friend's party ( in "real" life, people). if you wanted to meet him
by e-rules, you would ask your friend to ask her friend to invite him to converse. then he would accept his friend's invitation,
at which point she would convey to your friend that its ok, and then your friend could invite him
to friend you.... whew.

my ideas about doing a blog were to enter into e-society, to expand my horizons beyond this small
country community where i have lived for years,
and to find some interesting interactions with new and different people, with like-minds and/or different ideas.....rural living is a great gift,   but there arent coffee shops closer than 25 miles down the road.   sometimes the brain needs "refreshing".
i find this new writing space so strange and interesting.  is it truly any different than writing in
a journal beside the bed, for only you to see? it seems more like hanging flyers on telephone poles
along the  roadside.
my intention is to follow through in this curious medium,  just to see what i can see...... and say what i can say
and i suppose, see what i can say.....ad infinitum.     vty, J_lea