And That's Another Thing.....

Scratch made a comment on my post "Two Peas" about going to a certain website to "meet-up" with people to make new friends. She also wrote her on post on her thoughts......

So that comment has lead to another point I want to make. Don't get me wrong- I ADORE and LOVE the internet and my friends I've made on it. Some of my best friends have made on here. (As an aside, do you have any idea how many NUTTERS and CrackPots I met while I was finding my "GOOD" internet friends? HUNDREDS! It's scary how many there are out there!) Fully half of my friends in my life now are people I know from the internet. But a full 90% of those I have yet to meet face to face in real life! I talk to about maybe half of those on the phone a few times a year.

But that's not the same as meeting people face to face.
I can't stress to you how important I think it is to have real, live, flesh and blood, I can sit in front of you and have lunch or go have a beer together after work type friends.

I honestly don't think you can't have your life almost completely wrapped up in just the w.w.w. and lead a normal life. My belief is that you begin to lose a part of yourself when you stop having Real Life interactions with the human race.
I mean you may interact with a couple of people in RL- but when you are so immersed in the internet, you forget how to deal with people in RL. You become much more jaded and cynical. I think it's too easy to just be able to walk away from anything you don't want to have to deal with. If you're on the computer and you don't like the way a conversation or situation is going, you turn it off or leave the site. If that happens in Real Life, you can't do that. You have to deal with it in one way or another. Even if you DO walk away, you can't just instantly remove yourself from the situation and ignore it- you have to physically deal with it while you're walking away from it. There is no automatic shut-down.

Real Life face to face conversations and the human touch - even if no actual touching is going on- is something we all need to help us retain human emotions like compassion, and shame, and love.

We all need RL human interaction in addition to the internet connections we make. Don't you think?


(I looked at the website Scratch recommended and it looks interesting- it's not just a website- it's actually a website to find local RL interest groups to join. Yay! Thanks Scratch!)