Pondering
Posted by Andrea Humphrey on March 1st, 2007
The most insightful and brilliant person I have ever known in my life is someone I’ve never actually met. Sometimes that freaks me out. Sometimes that’s part of what I like.
Is this how it will be for the next generation? You have friends you’ve never met, lovers you have never touched, unbreakable bonds with people who speak another language? And if that’s where relationships will be built in 20 years, is that good or bad?
Part of it is sad to me. The same way you never catch kids having a street hockey game without supervision anymore. Or see kids riding their bikes with no destination in mind. Or even see a 15 year old with a crappier cell phone than you have! Society has changed. People are more paranoid than ever. Relationships are not built like they used to be.
But on the other hand, you form relationships with people that are free from obvious prejudice. You have no idea if the person on the other end is really a man or woman, much less what their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. is. Maybe this kind of relationship building will encourage more tolerance. It will be interesting to see if SL mirrors RL in sociological realms as well.
This insightful and brilliant person I spoke of is someone I have never even shook hands with. And yet, I am fortunate to call this person a good, personal friend. Will we ever meet? Who knows. Who cares?
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
Well from my perspective, the people who have touched my life the most were met through means of AOL, Yahoo, online gaming, etc. Some of these people have gone on to become a big part of my life. I met my wife on AOL. I’ve never truly met anyone that I formed a lasting relationship through “traditional” means such as clubs, bars, etc. Even co-workers whom I formed a friendship with usually faded after one of us changed jobs…Granted I’ve met some wonderful people by chance, but that also includes online meetings. This is the way of the world now. Who cares who that person is on the other end or what not. when you meet and form a bond, that bond is what it is, until something changes it. So much like meeting in a club you have to use your spidey sense when meeting folks online. Basically it comes down to this..how ever you are offline, that is how you should be online…meaning if you a conservative in the way you meet people, the amount of info you share, and how close you allow people in, then you should be the same online…but if you are a free spirit like I am, this will continue online as well…
Heres to meeting many of you, come what may in and out of the world.
Rex
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
—Part of it is sad to me. The same way you never catch kids having a street hockey game without supervision anymore. Or see kids riding their bikes with no destination in mind. Or even see a 15 year old with a crappier cell phone than you have! Society has changed. People are more paranoid than ever. Relationships are not built like they used to be.—-
Awesome Sentiment…I agree totally.
Rex
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
that is an amazing blog entry…
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Society certainly HAS changed, and will continue to change as it always has. I’m only 31, yet find myself reveling at how different my kids’ childhoods will be. I admit, I’m paranoid with my kids, and although the walk to school is less than a full block away, I’ll be walking right along side of him when he starts kindergarten in the fall. Likely years after that too. I guess part of it is all the kidnappings that you hear about. Not sure if it’s one of those things that have been happening all along, and we just hear more about them now… or it HAS increased. I guess that’s where most of my paranoid comes from. In any case, I’m both terrified and incredibly excited about watching my kids grow up in their own way.
I’ve really enjoyed the rare opportunities I’ve had to meet those from SL in person. Sometimes you are thrown for a loop, sometimes everything is as expected. The truth is that there is a real person behind the av. Sometimes it’s a joy to see the REAL person, see a smile, hear a laugh, offer a hardy handshake or a hug.
Great post Andrea!
March 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
When I was a kid some of my biggest influences were/are dead. Dead writers and artists, and people who shared their lives in books. Now I’m very thankful for the live authors, cartoonist and artist I can find easily on-line, and get to know. Even in RL I feel that sometimes one only knows someone by their “music” for example. I read above me a post filled with fear of strangers. Not that I am not. But, I know very honestly I’m more afraid of complete isolation. And the solitary confinement that can be enforced by media-generated-one-way-fear. But, the media of enter action in SL, is one of feed back, you can meet a hundred people in a day, from all over the world. You can share thoughts, ideals, and find that yeah, some people are scary .. I don’t want kids I know to lurk over my shoulder at SL. But still :-) most in-world are busy exhibiting the infinite variations that define what is human. Even if you can’t smell them, or pick on their genetics or pursue an ignorant pattern of physical characteristic discrimination rather than “listen” to them.
Nice post, Andrea thanks for sharing :-)