Online friendships and connections are a cheap substitute for the real thing. We can easily trick ourselves into thinking that we have close friendships by occasionally posting sentence fragments back and forth. When in reality we may hardly ever call them or talk to them in person. Let's face it. It's easier to send a text, email, or post a comment than it is to pick up the phone and see how they are really doing. Even with a phone call we secretly hope for voicemail sometimes :-0 I believe we live in a culture that's too busy to get caught up in the icky-ness of life that relationships bring sometimes.
Am I too cynical? I don't think so. Good, genuine relationships are hard work. They take some time and effort. Our modern day gadgetry can be used so easily to simply "maintain" our friendships. But the question is are we really investing in these relationships?
Do I see the value in Facebook and other social network sites? Absolutely. Especially for business networking and long lost friends. But close friends? Hmmm....maybe acquaintances at best. Will I be back on the social network scene? Probably. After all, it's here to stay. I just want to be cautious that I don't substitute real relationships solely online. If that's the case, we are "maintaining" these relationships (at a minimum), not investing in them. I struggle to find this balance on FB. So for now I'm taking a time-out.
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