The Interwebs.

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Are the interwebs necessary? What has happened to the face to face meeting? Is this a good thing? Is what a good thing? The interwebs.

I believe i made an earlier post on similar themes dealing with the anonymity of the interwebs, but now I want to look at it from a more personal perspective. I use this magic computer box to keep in touch with my friends; that being real people I know and have met. This also includes the A-list whose members I have met and am glad to call a part of my family. In the past 7 years I have met a number pf people with whom I became very good friends. Unfortunately our lives have traveled, and continue to travel in many different directions. My best friend here at Tech won't be next year, my best friend at Tech last year isn't here anymore. These two people helped me more than can be said in the past few months. If I didn't use the interwebs to keep in contact I'm not sure things would have turned out as well as they have. Also the members of the aforementioned A-List helped me put a perspective on my life that I wouldn't have had otherwise. These are people who I would never in my life come across without the technology I'm using right here and now. I should say that the list isn't your typical forum style setting. We all use our real names and we are all held accountable for what we say. This can remove some of the inherent problems with online communication without hurting the benefits.

This is not to say that The interwebs have helped me stay in contact with all of my past friends, but through things like facebook I can still check in every now and then and know that they are still out in the world just like I am. My best friend in Kindergarten was Eric Cabral. I don't remember much about him now, but we hung out in his house a lot, and some number of years later i learned that his mother packed him and his brother up one day and left their father. Searching on facebook I find six men with that name. If I was so inclined I could contact them and see if any of them used to go to Dove elementary. I'm not going to do this because our lives have diverted to much; we would have nothing to talk about. This doesn't have to happen nowadays, with the technology we have. I can keep my friends who are separated by distance close through the interwebs. We can share ideas stories happiness and defeat. (the agony of defeat is walking 20 miles in one day. Pun.)

Now I tried branching out with the random people in cyberspace and invited a stranger from Chicago to be my friend on facebook. It was amusing at first but he when he tried to comfort me online it just felt awkward, because I didn't and don't know him. I guess I'm trying to say while the 'net can be used to sustain relationships, they should be formed in the real world.

So far, so good.  ¶ 4/19/2007 05:07:00 PM