Have you noticed how the meaning of "friends" has changed?
It used to be, not so many years ago, that a friend was someone you had known for many years, you knew their family history and their likes and dislikes. Most importantly, you did things together. Maybe you did nothing more than go to garage sales, or shopping, or to just chat over the back-yard fence.
With MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and a variety of other Web sites, the term "friend" has come to mean anyone you socialize with on the Internet.
I have Internet friends from Australia to Wales and many of the states, plus several in Canada. We play word games together, we chat through Yahoo or Google, and sometimes we even visit over the computer just as we would on the telephone.
So we obviously don't socialize in the same sense as we did in the pre-Internet days. That doesn't mean I haven't found some good friends through these sites.
Some of my best laughs have been late at night chatting with a friend in St. Louis. A friend in Pennsylvania and I have shared some good days and bad days via Internet chat and telephone conversations.
A young friend in Australia has shared his hopes and dreams with me. I've encouraged him when he needed it and he's encouraged me when I needed it. Several have become my friends because we share an interest in loving and rescuing animals.
A friend in England has drastically different religious views than mine, and we have on occasion engaged in lively debate. A young woman in Russia asks for my explanation of American phrases and customs as she studies English in college.
Our friends are no longer restricted to just those around our community, for our community has widened to include the whole world. They are just as dear as any friends I have had, despite our friendship being different from how we once defined friendship.
It's not that I have given up personal friendships in my community, because I haven't.
Just as I have redefined the meaning of friends, I have also redefined and enlarged my meaning of community. It brings us new respect for our similarities and our differences.
I still find it hard to get to grips with the internet friends I have made - and even met the odd few.
ReplyDeleteSome things are easier - easier to share personal issues with people you haven't met and probably never will, and also easier to 'meet' people with whom you share something in common, like you many of my friends are animal rescue/dog related from blogs or Facebook.
And like real life I've also fallen out with people - and sometimes made up again. Best of all though, is that some of those friends are there for me when I need them, and I hope I am there for them.
Lost count of the number of times I have written about this on my blogs!!