Comments on: Internet breaks not builds friendships – what's your take? http://beckscafe.com/2006/09/09/internet-breaks-not-builds-friendships-whats-your-take/ Coffee, Chocolate & Love Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:08:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Rebecca http://beckscafe.com/2006/09/09/internet-breaks-not-builds-friendships-whats-your-take/#comment-61 Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:12:20 +0000 http://sun.asmallorange.com/~becki/2006/09/09/internet-breaks-not-builds-friendships-whats-your-take/#comment-61 Hi Mandy,

Thank you for your comment and excellent perspective across the pond there :) The cultural differences you mention are interesting.

Regarding your comment on anonymity above, it seems to me that this actually can enhance initial communication, especially in more isolated parts of society. Except for the rare few, most people don’t necessarily want to be seen as different, whether they are transgender, autistic, or have Tourette’s disorder. The anonymity may allow some to speak more freely than they might otherwise be able to.

Eventually though people you begin to form relationship want to know who you are though. Not necessarily from a point of validating you as a person but more in line with your comment above about needs. Human beings need to interact with each other and I think in line with that is a need to be known and to know others.

]]> By: Mandy http://beckscafe.com/2006/09/09/internet-breaks-not-builds-friendships-whats-your-take/#comment-60 Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:55:25 +0000 http://sun.asmallorange.com/~becki/2006/09/09/internet-breaks-not-builds-friendships-whats-your-take/#comment-60 Interesting cultural difference there. Around here (Germany), it’s much more common in comparison to hear the exact opposite of that. That on a grand scale, contrary to whichever popular cliché, the Internet does in fact serve as the exact opposite of a social divider, that some-researcher-somewhere-else has yet again found out about how it affects people’s social ties positively. Certainly the potential of isolationism does exist in the pseudonymity and anonymity that’s inherent to the Internet, and in the easy access to any remote resource and contact it offers, but the need to communicate and connect and interact with others is inherent to human beings just as well. If there is a decline in the quality of people’s social interactions, then I’d say the Internet is not the reason for it, but rather an indicator that brings more general problems in a given society to the surface.

It also would be interesting to chat with those cited researchers about the aspect of quantity versus quality. If they say the Internet makes people have less close friends, I can only answer that regardless it has the potential to help you find and make much better friends, even by accident.

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