REAL LIFE FRIENDS vs VIRTUAL FRIENDS

Gone are the days when courtship was such a long process where our elders faced a tough time trying to go that extra mile to impress the counterparts of their interest. Life was very simple by then when two people were in love, thanks to the delayed communication process, letter writing was a very exciting activity where one would take their time to express their desires and yearnings towards each other decorating the letters with flowers sealing it with an essence of a sweet smelling perfume. (Well... that’s all gone now!)

By then, you could easily get the feeling of festivities by the flooding letters and cards that would stream in from our loved ones wishing us the best that there is at that moment and beyond. Greeting cards and beautiful writing pads were the hottest thing in the market at the time.

Then came the era of the internet and social networking sites plummeting the then booming business of card sales, post cards and writing pads. With the coming of “virtual friendship” in form of social networking sites, BBMs, WhatsApps and whatnot, we are forced to re-evaluate what we term as relationships and friendships. Today all you have to do is to befriend the person on Facebook, or get their blackberry PIN and the rest shall follow.

This has rather undervalued the traditional concept of friendship because, in the world we live in today, shutting a person out of your life comes with just a click! At the slightest argument you can instantly just block or delete the person and they will get a clear message that the friendship is no more. What I don’t seem to understand is that, are we to call such a setting, friendship or just a pastime experience with some random people we meet online?

It is only human to garner strong emotional ties with someone you only talk to but you never met. We sometimes get so emotionally attached with these strangers we meet online based on the assumption that our communication will cultivate into a more meaningful relationship. This is because it softens the idea that you are talking to a stranger. Communication is made much easier where people are free to express their feelings without the fear of rejection.

It always starts with a mere “hi!” to getting to know each other a whole lot more. However it is really hard to tell whether what you share is honest or it just happens that the other end is always at your disposal when you need someone to steam-off your frustrations to, or share your happy moments with.

All in all, be it the virtual world or real world, friendship should not be valued by the time you spend with someone but rather the moments you share together. It is the mutuality of the inner personalities that should count.