How well do we know our social media friends?

[Futka Worlddirectory]

It is ironic and a bit of a surprise about the buzz of social network
most especially Facebook and twitter. Personally, facebook as a social
network is the best invention that has happen in our recent history.
Conversely, it is having a detrimental effect on a great number of
people instead of being social tools it is now making them anti-social
and a recluse.

My personal experience was stem from the school reunion we had in
Houston, Texas in October 2010 at Crowne Plaza, Houston when over 50
old school mates showed up after over 35yrs of schooling. The
atmosphere was electric thanks to facebook for making it possible to
network prior to the reunion.

The reason behind us having a reunion was to form a stronger bond and
ties together it’s one thing to engage with somebody through Twitter
or to do a chat with them or leave a comment on their blog, It’s a
totally different ball game to shake their hand and look them in the
eye and share a beer and feed with them. This was an awesome
experience that became very emotional after 4days together. Though we
still keep in touch, the memories will linger on forever.

Now, back to the question of how well do we know our social media
friends? using facebook to a lot of people is all about “How many
friend do you have”? , how many cool photos have you got?, for many of
us that have been around social network for a while will know or
follow Trey Pennington never really knew him that well despite his
100,000+ followers until he committed suicide due to personal
problems. Apart from his close confidants, many that followed him
called him a close friend until that faithful day. Is social media all
about living for the moment?. Another experience was my recent visit
to Melbourne, Australia walking with my wife in one of the secluded
beaches was 4 teenage girls sitting together not talking to each other
but tweeting and facebooking their friends.

This begs the question again, how well do we know our friends? It’s
possible that you’ve had a really deep and meaningful conversation on
Twitter or Facebook with someone in your group that you greatly
respect and admire, but if you passed them on the street you wouldn’t
even recognize them, let alone stop and chat. Now what I do personally
with my online friends as a matter of policy and I am not recommending
you do the same is if you are my friend online and we haven’t
communicated within the last 12months, that friend will be out of my
friends list. What is the use having friends you don’t communicate
with only to read each others post. Please share your thoughts on how
you feel!