Exactly at what point did friendship boil down to abbreviated messages sent through text messages, instant messaging or random comments left on a wall? With all the social networking sites available today you would think that peoples inner circle of friends would grow expediently to such amazing numbers that you would struggle with keeping all their names straight.
Sadly the truth of the matter is that sites such as Facebook, Myspace, yahoo messenger, and heck now even Twitter, is are more like anti-social sites geared towards even less contact with one another. Oh sure, you post the lasted pictures from your day, home, family or whatever thing you choose to snap a photo of with your cell phone, but when is the last time you met one of your friends for tea (or coffee as the case may be) and hand them pictures you just got back from your drugstore? What is it that drives people to make a profile and search through pictures of people they have not seen in twenty years? Is it a true yearning for old friends? Are you reaching out to get their phone number so that you can meet and catch up over lunch? Or is it some misguided curiosity to see who is doing what (or who is fatter, skinner)? Why is it that we spend hours flipping though their pages to see what they are doing now?
Suddenly you have over a hundred (or more) Facebook friends does that mean you life is suddenly richer because of it? Does that mean that you can post to all these folks who are listed as “friends” and ask for help moving into your new home, or see if anyone can “float” you a loan? No not likely. How many people do you accept because you don’t want to hurt their feelings though you are relatively sure you never spoke to them one time while you were school and relatively certain that you will most likely never have a real conversation with them. So how exactly does that make these social networking sites “social”?
I believe I actually long for the days where we had to use the phone to connect with out friends and not wait for them to update their status page to find out what they are up to. No, we did a crazy thing and call our friends and find out how they were. Now we all have cell phones to stay “connected” ... connected to what I am not always clear on. If with these incredible conversational pieces in our grasp you would think we were checking on our “friends”, calling and making plans. Instead we don’t actually talk on them, no we text short quick sentences using funny little shortcuts. We do not say later we say L8R, we don’t actually laugh with our friends we LOL with our friends.
I no longer want a status update dinging as it comes through my phone, I want an honest to goodness old fashion phone call or a letter, heck I am not picky, send me an e-mail directly to me and not the hundred plus added people that you probably have not seen in a million years, but a real communication meant for me and me alone.
I say that applications like Facebook are killing friendships. Husbands and wife’s are not immune as they take their relationship to the social networking sites, leaving each other messages on their walls? Really? I think I would prefer to talk with them during dinner or a movie, even pulling myself out of the computer and looking at them when I talk to them. I do not want to leave someone a message to see what up?, I want to hear their voice and share the fun of really laughter and tears.
So I say to that if you want to know me than don’t try to add me randomly, pick up the phone, send a letter, postcard or an e-mail. No longer will I resort to being the sum of my latest status message. I am a person, flawed and crazy. I am not the same person I was in high school so do not try to dig out an old yearbook and see if I have “improved” or “aged horribly”, send me a note and share your favorite memory with me. Let us break free from the horrible rut that “social” networking sites have lead us to. Shake the repressive shackles that the internet has encouraged onto our friendships and let us crawl out from behind the keyboard and learn to laugh again, not simple LOL or LMAO, or even any other abbreviation. Let us go back to the days where it was TGIF so that we could spend the weekend with friends and family for real.
With that note I think it is time to gather the addresses of my real friends so that I can participate in living and reaching out to real people.
Signing Off,
God Bless and Good night
Jennifer
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