Plurk

I find it amusing that although the entire point of the beginning of Friday’s class was to put a real name to everyone’s face, it seemed to have worked completely opposite for me and simply enforced plurk names. Now, not only do I still not know anyone’s name in class, but everyone’s plurk names have finally been matched to a face. Not only did I completely forget all of the real names people introduced themselves as, but I found that I wasn’t really listening for them to say their real names. What I was waiting for was for them to say their plurk names. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, williamnot’s real name is Billy, and GAtticus’ real name is Greg!” I was thinking “Oh, that’s what williamnot looks like!” It would seem that everyone in the nanotext class will forever be defined by their plurk names to me (which will make it harder when anyone decides to change their plurk name). Even Prichard has changed from Prichard to nanotext is my conversations sometimes.
Alex (facecrook) even mentioned to me today over coffee that Brian (el8_br), even though he has known me for over a year (or thereabouts) referred to me as coffeeondemand in a conversation earlier. Now how is it possible that in the span of four weeks a plurk name can actually replace someone’s real name? How much has plurk been able to infiltrate our lives in such a small period of time? I find myself getting distracted by plurk ALL THE TIME. It takes me twice as long to do anything now on the computer because I always have plurk up in another window. Just yesterday it took me over two hours to watch a 40 minute episode of house online. Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter have never consumed my life nearly as much as Plurk has managed to. Is it because plurking is twenty percent of my grade in our English class? Or is there some other reason that Plurk has managed to weasel its way into my life in such a dominating way?