Monday, 2 February 2009

Internet Woes

The Internet is a wonderful thing. It enables us to do pretty much anything, and become pretty much anyone. Take this blog for example. I could be, for all you know, a 40 year old male who still lives with his mum. I'm not - I'm an eighteen year old girl (but I do still live with my mum and dad) - but you could never really be sure.

The Internet has allowed for us to stay in contact with people we've met or old friends from high school, through things like Facebook and Bebo. I love these websites. In fact, last week I met a guy from Canada. I then found him on Facebook, sent him a message and lo and behold, he adds me, and now we chat semi-frequently on the site's chat system, even though he's back in his home country.

What worries me, though, is that we're going to make less of an effort to actually stay in touch. This is something I hadn't really thought of until I began to pack my things for when I move in three weeks. Sure, I'll leave my friends a message, and catch up with them through chat, but will I ever physically meet them again? Will saying 'happy birthday' on Facebook replace a greeting in person? Will I feel that by 'dropping them a line' online that I've done enough to maintain the friendship? And will my friendships thus become hollow and pretend?

3 comments:

DougOnBlogger said...

I'm going to say no, resoundingly so. You just have to include a few sentences besides "happy birthday" in your notes. But for me the internet tools have been extremely valuable in keeping in touch with friends. I have a good half dozen friends currently halfway around the world, and it would just be impossible to stay in touch without these. They're certainly not hollow or pretend - it's just a different mode of communicating. In fact if I had any worry, it would be that the internet has made it so easy to keep in touch with some friends, I've done a bad job keeping up with the people I'd actually have to telephone in order to talk to.

Anonymous said...

Good food for thought SS. I actually think I agree with both of you in part - such websites can make some friendships all the more shallow, but they also have the propensity to keep you in touch with, and to allow you to enjoy infrequent contact with, those people who you meet and who don't instantly become best friends with.

Much has been written about the good and bad that comes out of these things, but I'm starting to feel strongly that if you're proactive when you use something like FB, if you use it as a tool to strengthen your friendships rather than to replace previous communication, then they make your life richer.

The trouble is I don't always follow that advice and have friends I wish I messaged more and as a result spent more time with.
Still, the great thing about FB is you can drop them a note out of the blue and pick up again... : )

Anonymous said...

SS,
I just read this article, you might find it interesting.