They get a vicarious thrill from reading the blogs of people who are doing things they’d like to be doing. They lurk around on forums, never letting anyone know they are there, living a live of quiet voyeurism. Unlike Peepism of old, Virtual Peeping is perfectly legal. We aren’t talking about stalking or privacy invasion, what makes this legal is that there are plenty of people out there exposing themselves willingly in front of the open windows of the web.

We call them “bloggers”.

They blog on topics that were not discussed at all 50 years ago except in hushed tones in a doctor’s office or in desperation to your mother when you didn’t know what else to do.

They discuss the intimate details of their personal relationships, the functions of their bodies, and the things they did at the party, whether these things SHOULD be discussed or not! Some bloggers seem utterly unaware that anyone who wishes to do so can READ what they wrote.

Others have more circumspection, restraining their baser impulses where writing the minute details of their lives is concerned. We thank them! They are the ones who entertain us and make us feel like friends instead of like skulking peepers, even though the friendship really isn’t real, because it is completely one-sided.

Like all things, it is certain that there is a point beyond which this just isn’t healthy. But it is also certain that nobody is quite where the line should be drawn.