Monday, July 19, 2010
Cyber Buddies!
I have yet to create a new friend from cyberspace. I have, however, maintained a few friendships with the help of social networking sites such as Facebook. I think this has come easier to me because I already place value on these people, and really that value comes in the form of time. The rest of my life is fairly full, and the idea of trying to find new friendships via the web sounds tiring. I never really understood the point of establishing whom you are in written terms mainly because I always seem to have a harder time expressing myself in written in comparison to in person conversation. I think I just enjoy watching people so much that it seems like half the fun of getting to know someone and hanging out with them would be immediately, and needlessly, eliminated. I think it made sense when this was the only way to gather or share information from a great distance, but we can share so much more these days with modern technology.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also maintain relationships with friends that have moved away, or people I have met while traveling via Facebook and email. I agree with you that it is easier to maintain these kinds of relationships because there is a value you have out on these people already. While I haven’t made new friends exclusively over the internet, I cane see the upside to it. You are right that much of the fun of friends is hanging out with them physically, but what if you made cyber friends based on similar interests that your “physical” friends don’t share. Perhaps people you meet online who have the same taste in things as you would be good at recommending books, movies, etc. that better suit your tastes.
ReplyDeleteFirst I have to say thanks for your honesty about this topic. I was a little hesistant to speak my mind about it. But your right, trying to create and maintain a new relationship online unless I really had no other option. I even have a hard time maintaining already established relationships online. I don't have facebook or myspace and my friends always give me a hard time. First of all I'm not computer savvy and don't see the point. We have been fine without the internet and now its taboo not to have a facebook. But would like to point out that 1/5 divorces state facebook as one of the issues. I think this is crazy stat. I'm not married or anything but it goes to show that it can become a problem. Anyhow, good post.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting you mentioned keeping in touch with old friends through the means of online communication, especially friends from high school. I have done that too, however I find that this sort of communication only last for two or three correspondences: I catch up with them on what they are doing now, they learn what I do now and after that, there is nothing else to talk about. I guess our connection to friends is highly dependent on the experiences we have together. In fact, if you think about it, when we meet someone, we typically tend to bond with someone who has similar interests to ours and we build the friendship on that mutual interest, and not just because you know who they are.
ReplyDelete