Net friends or real friends?

Being a Myspace addict, and one to be signed into msn nearly every waking hour of the day, i'm beginning to wonder what the point is of going out somewhere in the hope of meeting new people. Why bother when all you need to do is 'Browse' Myspace, or enter a chat room? I personally have quite a few friends who i have never met, and am closer to some of them than i am my 'real life' mates. So again, why are chat rooms and Myspace browsing replacing real life meetings? Join with me, reader, as we try to delve into the wonderful world of Cyber Friends.

I may just be weird, but i always find it so difficult to walk up to a person (especially a girl) and start a conversation. I was always intimidated by the thought of being brushed off, ignored or laughed at. None of these things have ever happened to me, but i would still much rather sit in the background and watch the world go by without having to meet and make all these new friends.

Perhaps that's what good old Tom had in mind when he created Myspace. The majority of people are much to shy to go out and establish relationships, myself included. I find that the anonymity and "Casualness" (an actual word, i looked it up) of adding friends to my ever-growing list is much easier and, in some cases more rewarding, than going out somewhere and asking for a phone number. If somebody rejects your friend request on Myspace (a rather pointless act) then you hardly even realise. Most of us have so many friends on the website that we don't even remember who they all are. I personally talk to less than half of the people on my page regularly, and have never even met about 20% of them.

It's quite hard to be self-concious when using a web-based meeting tool. In a chat-room, the only thing to give away who you are is a screen name, and unless yours is something along the lines of 'I_eat_little_kids13' or 'Will_kill_for_cash48', you will generally find someone to talk to. When using a Myspace account, you don't need to have a photo of yourself on your page, and you can post every detail of your life, while still being completely anonymous.

Hmm... Well i guess i've made myself realised that the world's changing. It's not that we're not social anymore, but we're just a different social. Instead of going and and meeting new people, we're all staying home, logging onto the computer, and THEN meeting new people. I guess it's easier, I don't have to change out of my pyjamas when i search for love, and i can busy myself with other things while talking to my friends. There's still no substitute for good ol' fashioned eye contact though, and i hope that in the future, there are still times when i can go out with my friends and enjoy their REAL company, instead of their virtual companionship.

Have a good one.


-Sam