Something has been bothering me for the past few days. I have been pondering the word ‘friend’. I was thinking about all the friends in my life and how some are truly just acquaintances.
Think about all the social networks in which you communicate. There are so many people that I communicate with and yet I consider very few truly friends. I jump on Facebook and I have many friends, I go to LinkedIn and there are more, and let’s not forget all my Tweeps on Twitter. So really I have many so called ‘friends’.
The reason I bring this up today is I thought I saw someone who I have only communicated with via social networks. I found it odd to try to talk to them in person and simply opted out.
Am I the only person to experience this? Am I the only one that feels that how you know me on the internet and through social networks could be a bit different than real life? How do you interpret my statuses and tweets? Do you understand my sarcasm? Inflection cannot really be expressed through writing to show sarcasm and intent, perhaps I am coming off as cross or giddy.
Could the problem be that I am open with my accounts and let most people be my friend and read my tweets? Maybe all of you are more selective with who you have as friends and acquaintances. All these thoughts run through my mind.
Having never experienced this before I have to wonder if others have. I find it intriguing to start thinking about friends and acquaintances and putting them in ‘human’ and ‘social network’ categories.
Readers I need feedback on this one!
Think about all the social networks in which you communicate. There are so many people that I communicate with and yet I consider very few truly friends. I jump on Facebook and I have many friends, I go to LinkedIn and there are more, and let’s not forget all my Tweeps on Twitter. So really I have many so called ‘friends’.
The reason I bring this up today is I thought I saw someone who I have only communicated with via social networks. I found it odd to try to talk to them in person and simply opted out.
Am I the only person to experience this? Am I the only one that feels that how you know me on the internet and through social networks could be a bit different than real life? How do you interpret my statuses and tweets? Do you understand my sarcasm? Inflection cannot really be expressed through writing to show sarcasm and intent, perhaps I am coming off as cross or giddy.
Could the problem be that I am open with my accounts and let most people be my friend and read my tweets? Maybe all of you are more selective with who you have as friends and acquaintances. All these thoughts run through my mind.
Having never experienced this before I have to wonder if others have. I find it intriguing to start thinking about friends and acquaintances and putting them in ‘human’ and ‘social network’ categories.
Readers I need feedback on this one!
RSS Feed