Internet friendship
My mother gets really confused every time I tell her something I heard from my sister in law when we talked online. To her, talking is face to face or by phone. Talking online confuses her. I suppose it’s a generational difference, because I grew up using computers so they are as normal a tool of communication as the telephone or letters, but there’s more than that. What really confuses my mother more is when I tell her about someone I’ve met online, in a chat room or in a forum.
Of course there is a difference between talking to someone you’ve never met, as opposed to talking to a friend you know from school or from work. To the first you can perhaps be more open about your beliefs, and ideas, or even dreams because, and since you will probably never meet, whatever judgement he/she may form about you has little impact on you life. So, in a way, you’re freer to be yourself. But on the other hand, traditional friends know you more fully because they know not only what you say, but also how you act and react to different events. But because these friends are closer and have the power to judge and influence you, we sometimes hide certain parts of ourselves for fear of not being accepted.
Shakespeare once said that “it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”. By the same token I too believe that it is better to have different kinds of friends, than just the one type. Diversity allows us to get in touch with different perspectives of life and that is what makes us richer!
A.C., May, 2006
My mother gets really confused every time I tell her something I heard from my sister in law when we talked online. To her, talking is face to face or by phone. Talking online confuses her. I suppose it’s a generational difference, because I grew up using computers so they are as normal a tool of communication as the telephone or letters, but there’s more than that. What really confuses my mother more is when I tell her about someone I’ve met online, in a chat room or in a forum.
Of course there is a difference between talking to someone you’ve never met, as opposed to talking to a friend you know from school or from work. To the first you can perhaps be more open about your beliefs, and ideas, or even dreams because, and since you will probably never meet, whatever judgement he/she may form about you has little impact on you life. So, in a way, you’re freer to be yourself. But on the other hand, traditional friends know you more fully because they know not only what you say, but also how you act and react to different events. But because these friends are closer and have the power to judge and influence you, we sometimes hide certain parts of ourselves for fear of not being accepted.
Shakespeare once said that “it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”. By the same token I too believe that it is better to have different kinds of friends, than just the one type. Diversity allows us to get in touch with different perspectives of life and that is what makes us richer!
A.C., May, 2006
posted by Alya_C at
10:31 AM
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