admin The other day, I was talking to an individual at Starbucks, and she indicated to me that she had lots of friends, and as we meandered from topic to topic, she kept telling me stories about her friends. Eventually I told her that she must have a “ton of friends” far more than she originally indicated. She told me that she didn’t have as many as he used to, and so I asked her why. What she told me was quite intriguing, and perhaps a statement of where our society is going. Okay so let’s talk shall we?
She said that many of her friends didn’t want to get together with her anymore, or when they did they were too busy playing on all their personal tech devices, and they couldn’t hold a conversation for more than about 10 minutes before they had to answer an e-mail, a tweet, or the phone. Many of her friends did not want to get together at all anymore because they didn’t want to bother her, but they said they would stay in touch with her on Facebook, or send her text messages or call her on the phone. Many of her friends had more friends online than in the real world.
She said that she was considering joining the social networks as well because that’s where all her friends are, and she thought it was odd that whenever she contacted one of her friends to get together she felt guilty as if she was taking up their time because they obviously had other friends to contact with the personal tech devices. Let me ask you a question; since when is it okay to disrupt someone all throughout the day, but improper to meet with them in person because that might disrupt their time?
It seems these days it is easier to make friends online than it is in real life, at least for some people. Nevertheless, I think the reason is because folks don’t talk to each other anymore. Perhaps you have waited in a doctor’s office, to get your hair cut, in line at a coffee shop, and no one talks to each other anymore everyone is busy text messaging and sending e-mails. No wonder it’s hard for them to make friends in the real world, and I would submit to you that most of their friends in the virtual world, aren’t really their friends at all.
Real friends will go out of their way to help you, and you’ll go out of your way to help them as well. How many friends online do you feel should be in that category? Not many I bet, especially if you won’t even meet with them, or call a meeting because that is too presumptuous of their time. Please consider all this and think on it.