See Me, Click Me

Joseph Argabrite would rather live a public life than a private one. "It's therapeutic. It's like talking to someone," he says. Ingrid Wiese says, "There is a lack of shame I have in sharing my personal life." But there is, she says, "a certain narcissism in people who choose to live their private lives in the public." (Photos By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

She posts interviews she has given from when she starred in "Joe Schmo 2," a 2004 reality TV show, on the Internet. Writing as Jane Schmo, she puts her observations about dating, growing up and being on television on her blog, http://popculturecasualty.blogspot.com/ . She is at once funny and befuddling on her Friendster page, pointing out that she meticulously keeps menus from restaurants where she has eaten and sometimes hides gossip magazines in copies of the Wall Street Journal.

For Wiese, living a public life and having people respond to it is a natural thing. Many of her friends and family members are on Friendster or MySpace. Her sister, her mother and one of her brothers have blogs. She says, "It's just what we do."

She gets 200 to 300 hits a day on her blog. People are watching her life unfold. Men she meets through Friendster often know more about her than some of her offline friends do. She said it's kind of cool to know a guy has read "all my scary dating stories and still wanted to go out with me."

There is, Wiese says, "a certain narcissism in people who choose to live their private lives in the public. I see a lot of people get caught up in it."

Joseph Argabrite, a 23-year-old graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, is just getting caught up in this whole public life thing. And he's liking it. Today he's shopping for his father at Fashion Centre at Pentagon City and talking about going public. He's wearing a yellow polo shirt, blue jeans and black wristband signifying that he didn't vote for George W. Bush last time around. He carries a book bag with a blogger's tools of the trade: a journal, a digital camera, reading glasses.

He grew up in Radford, Va., and he goes back on occasion. But his life now is in Richmond, in Washington on certain weekends, and on his MySpace page. His blog includes some cursing, his rules for drinking and several mildly outrageous photographs, including one of three boys and a girl showing off their white underwear. He is aware that a future employer might see his site, but he doesn't care too much. He puts the stuff up anyway.

He wants to work with the government or for a nongovernmental agency on policy issues. "I have lots of friends who put lots of sordid details of their lives on the Internet," he says.

Argabrite finds solace in going public. "It's therapeutic," he says. "It's like talking to someone."

And because readers respond, he says, "I know someone is listening. I don't have to pay huge therapist bills."

He says, "Sometimes I put things up just for shock value."

His home page photo: Deborah Harry of Blondie, peeking voyeuristically through a Venetian blind as if she is watching something taboo.

"Sometimes you put up pictures of yourself half-clothed and see how many people want to become your friends," he says. The more provocative the photos, the more people visit his site, he says. "I always wanted to be on the 'Real World.' "