When I was a kid, I changed houses a lot. This means I always had to make new friends.
So I became good at this. And after a while, I got really good at making people out, and realizing what they could/would mean to me.

Then, the internet happened. As I started spending time online, I could see some of the friends there as well. IRC, Mail, IM and then social networks were the means for this.

It was simple: you had a friend you could hang out with, they had an email account, you sent them emails. They had a social network account, you could befriend them. You could interact, in an eerie sort of way. And that was good, considering most people had curfews and had to be in at a certain time.

Now, things have kinda changed.

You can befriend anyone on any social network. You can follow anyone on twitter. You can read any blog you like. You don’t have to actually know the person. For me, it works like this:
Social networks, I tend to keep clean. I don’t like adding people I don’t actually know. On twitter, I tend to follow people not because I like them, but because I like what they say. So I do follow people I’ve never actually spoken to. And blogs, well. That is totally different, but I read mostly tech stuff, and about 20 blogs from Timisoara, which do belong to people I know.

Another thing that’s different now is that actually knowing someone no longer means you’ve met them. Sure, it’s better if you do, but it’s no longer required.
I’ve made friends on last.fm, with whom I now chat regularly. Only one of them is from Timisoara, and I still haven’t gotten around to seeing him in person. I got picked up by a guy from India because he liked my shared items on Google Reader. And he’s a great dude that did not want me to outsource my business to him. He just wanted to chat. I’ve been there to see how a girl made it in to Cambridge, though we’ve only talked and jammed online. I’ve ‘harassed’ people on their blogs or on twitter. Now we go out for beer together. All the real jobs I got, I found over the internet. The list goes on.

And this scares me.

I’m now in a very strange state, struggling to close down the virtual interaction. But then, with some people, it’s hard to keep in touch, let alone go out and grab a cold one. With others, it’s damn impossible, since they’re from different continents. So I surrender some of my principles, and keep talking, laughing and sharing online. Because, sometimes, that’s all we’ve got.

Just think about it. Do you remember when the phone used to be an impersonal means of communication? It still is, but it sure is not perceived as such anymore, now is it?