One of the popular things that writers discuss when they decide to Decry The Modern World is how the Internet has made us more isolated and how we don\u2019t have Real Friends.<\/p>\n
Really?<\/p>\n
How many of you reading this have made a friend on the internet, then travelled more than 500 miles to visit that person?\u00a0 That\u2019s not real?<\/p>\n
Then my family growing up wasn\u2019t a real family!\u00a0 We traveled to Minnesota from Virginia for my brother to be a ring bearer in a 1st<\/sup> cousin once removed\u2019s wedding.\u00a0 We went to Georgia to see a great aunt.\u00a0\u00a0 We regularly traveled an hour or two to see (and often help out) cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and so on.<\/p>\n How does this count, yet when I do the same thing to visit friends I\u2019ve met through a computer, there is this idea that these friendships aren\u2019t real friendships?\u00a0 And don\u2019t get me started on the \u201cblood is thicker than water\u201d canard.\u00a0 I am lucky enough that I have blood relations that are indeed close and mutually supportive, but I have blood relations that aren\u2019t, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the same range as friendships I\u2019ve made.\u00a0 It\u2019s more to do with the people involved than the accidents of birth.<\/p>\n What? Face to face time?<\/p>\n I was comparing how often I saw people in person before I was connected to the Internet to now.\u00a0 \u00a0You know what?\u00a0 I interact face to face in a non-business environment about as often as I did.\u00a0 In fact, I tend to see people socially a bit more now.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n The Internet.\u00a0 It offers better opportunity for me to meet people that I actually have something in common<\/em> with!\u00a0 Sure, I\u2019m cool with helping shovel Mrs. Next Door\u2019s driveway, or driving Senora Across the Street to the grocery store.\u00a0 But I\u2019m unlikely to be talking politics, science or philosophy with \u2018em[1]<\/a>.\u00a0 So in my case, I have considerably more friends, both in simple quantity and in satisfaction levels, from being able to communicate across distance.<\/p>\n I think people that say the Internet makes them socially isolated might be unskilled in their appropriate use of technology.\u00a0 We hear about people texting all through face to face social gatherings.\u00a0 Now, I spent the weekend with some friends of mine who are even geekier than I am.\u00a0\u00a0 When we went out to dinner, we talked.\u00a0 Phones stayed in purses, and there was no texting going on.\u00a0 We\u2026 talked.\u00a0 Just like people did before the Internet.<\/p>\n One of the popular things that writers discuss when they decide to Decry The Modern World is how the Internet has made us more isolated and how we don\u2019t have Real Friends. Really? How many of you reading this have made a friend on the internet, then travelled more than 500 miles to visit that … <\/p>\n
[1]<\/a> In Sra. Across the Street\u2019s case, that\u2019s mostly a language issue. Neither her English nor my Spanish is up to that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"