What is a friend? Nowadays with the computer age, the definition of friendship has expanded. Now there are many venues with which to make friends, more than there used to be. When I was growing up, in order to discuss things with people far away, you wrote a letter, there were pen-pal clubs. I had a pen pal friendship with a girl in England. We wrote back and forth for about a year, then it just kind of died off. What about online friends. I've been online now since around the spring of 1994. I remember because we bought our house in the fall of 93, and got the internet that following spring. I found Yahoo chat, and had acquaintances, that were 'friends'. But you know, I only keep in touch with one out of all the people from that time. I count her as a friend. The others were merely acquaintances. She emails me stuff about her children, and we keep up with each others lives. That to me is what a friendship is more than just idle chit-chat. I was on a ladies email list, that I still talk to a few ladies from, that I count as friends, and when we went to Washington, went through Idaho and met one lady and her family, went to church with them, had a great time. But I haven't talked to her in quite a while. People come and go on the internet. What about people that you see about town? Do they come and go out of your life? And are they always there for you, reciprocating, never failing, a shoulder you can count on?
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Diane:
ReplyDeleteI think that it all comes down to the PERSON that you befriend.
Situations might change, but REAL, honest-to-God FRIENDS never seem to waver or fail.
I look at the Internet as an "extended family...the ones that live across the country that I rarely (if ever) see.
My keyboard has taken the place of my pen and paper in that regard.
(good thing, too...my arthritis really acts up some days)
When the missus and I were married in 1997, we had several internet friends come to OUR town and attend...that was really cool!
And we also traveled to visit people we met online.
I met the MISSUS online...and not from a dating service, either...(who knew?)
Even lost an online friend...
I suppose "art" (ot the internet) does mirror life.
It HAS an effect.
Very thought-provoking.
Well said.
I've lost an online friend, it really sucked. Used to talk to him almost every evening, he was in his early 70s, and we'd exchange Christmas cards, his wife would send pictures of the children and grandkids, and the dog, and her quilts that she had made (really gorgeous ones!). They lived by the factory that made Heath candy bars, and he would send a bag or two of them for the kids, and around Easter he'd send a bag of licorice jelly beans for the kids (the oldest liked them for some strange reason). His wife sent a mass card and the program from his funeral, I miss talking to him, he was a really neat guy to chat with. I still exchange cards with his wife every Christmas, too.
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