As internet becomes the opium of the mass, as more and more people mindlessly browse through the large sea of information (having lost the ability to willingly stop), a society forms 'online'.
Ultimate knowledge about almost everything under and beyond the sun, numerous outlets to express your most inane thoughts with people actually listening, and above all, the power to peek into each other's life with an ease you can only dream of in real life - what more can man ask?
Everyone feel loved (or 'Liked' a lot), respected, and valued 'online'. Everything gets easier - even making friends.
Internet friendships happen in the perfect world where real world concerns rarely intrude. It is like music, where you can relax for a while without worrying about the exhausting chores in your day's plan.
Internet pals are oblivious to a whole bunch of real details about each other. For instance, most of the time they visualize the real emotion and character of the other person through the limited amount of smileys. In real life I'd make sarcasm with a straight face rather than with my tongue sticking out.
Your understanding internet friends will be there for you, as long as you are connected to the network. And only as long.
This is a question which inevitably has been asked before:
How would your internet friends know if some fatal physical accident happens to you? What happens of your online empire, then?
The query invites a wide range of responses. In many cases people are less concerned. This attributes to the decreasing degrees of separation in a highly connected online world. In other words, haven't you noticed the unrealistic number of 'mutual friends' you have with many people in facebook? It can be the case that if someone disappears for a suspicious amount of time from the social network (used as a general term here), you will always get around to know the reason from someone, that too within a short length of enquiry.
But there are also one-to-one contacts. Also, the question of the online world you built remains (blogs etc). It can be the case that your family (and your real world contacts) are mostly unfamiliar to your online contacts and vice versa.
Some programmer suggests about a script which sends a final message to the internet pals and all your login credentials to a trusted few in case you haven't checked in for a given period. Then again, such a script is very sensitive. First there are the difficulties of engineering such a scheme brilliantly. Even when it is made and well deployed, there is the risk and constant paranoia of things going unexpectedly wrong; It is explosive information that is eagerly waiting to be sent to a whole bunch of internet people!
The creation part is done if Google and/or Facebook themselves come up with such a scheme to which we can sign up (considering both of these sites would know early in the morning if at least your hands and head are functioning). But the paranoia remains.
Update: Google has actually come up with a solution which solves part of the problems, with the launch of their Inactive Account Manager.
Where the limit lies
Many of you may know of Omegle, where you can sign in and chat up with totally anonymous intelligent entities (desirably other humans).
When I tried the website once, it seemed to be flooded with anonymous guys in desperate search for anonymous girls (whyy?).
Anyhow, at one point I came across two young sisters from Germany/Brazil/SomeOtherForeignCountry (can't remember!). I talked for a few minutes with the little girls - about movies, about our respective home towns and so on. It was all going happily, and then the connection went out for a blinking second. The omegle link which connected us was broken.
The screen showed cheerfully: "21, 342 strangers online!". Then it dawned on me. The conversation was lost forever. I would never know whatever happened to the little girls, and vice versa. It even felt unacceptable for a moment.
This incident was like a short demonstration of everything discussed in the last few paragraphs. Many special internet friendships (and our entire websites and blogs) are hanging on a single, vulnerable link. It could be broken the next moment, and the conversation could be lost forever, midway. All it takes is a fleeting second of reality.
Suddenly the technology looks insufficient. Perhaps the increasingly growing social web would make up for it. Perhaps Google actually has an online failsafe program in the making. (As stated in the above update, now Google has an afterlife manager :))
Ultimate knowledge about almost everything under and beyond the sun, numerous outlets to express your most inane thoughts with people actually listening, and above all, the power to peek into each other's life with an ease you can only dream of in real life - what more can man ask?
Everyone feel loved (or 'Liked' a lot), respected, and valued 'online'. Everything gets easier - even making friends.
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| A panel from the comic The Experiment |
Internet friendships happen in the perfect world where real world concerns rarely intrude. It is like music, where you can relax for a while without worrying about the exhausting chores in your day's plan.
Internet pals are oblivious to a whole bunch of real details about each other. For instance, most of the time they visualize the real emotion and character of the other person through the limited amount of smileys. In real life I'd make sarcasm with a straight face rather than with my tongue sticking out.
The connection
Your understanding internet friends will be there for you, as long as you are connected to the network. And only as long.
This is a question which inevitably has been asked before:
How would your internet friends know if some fatal physical accident happens to you? What happens of your online empire, then?
The query invites a wide range of responses. In many cases people are less concerned. This attributes to the decreasing degrees of separation in a highly connected online world
Some programmer suggests about a script which sends a final message to the internet pals and all your login credentials to a trusted few in case you haven't checked in for a given period. Then again, such a script is very sensitive. First there are the difficulties of engineering such a scheme brilliantly. Even when it is made and well deployed, there is the risk and constant paranoia of things going unexpectedly wrong; It is explosive information that is eagerly waiting to be sent to a whole bunch of internet people!
The creation part is done if Google and/or Facebook themselves come up with such a scheme to which we can sign up (considering both of these sites would know early in the morning if at least your hands and head are functioning). But the paranoia remains.
Where the limit lies
Many of you may know of Omegle
When I tried the website once, it seemed to be flooded with anonymous guys in desperate search for anonymous girls (whyy?).
Anyhow, at one point I came across two young sisters from Germany/Brazil/SomeOtherForeignCountry (can't remember!). I talked for a few minutes with the little girls - about movies, about our respective home towns and so on. It was all going happily, and then the connection went out for a blinking second. The omegle link which connected us was broken.
The screen showed cheerfully: "21, 342 strangers online!". Then it dawned on me. The conversation was lost forever. I would never know whatever happened to the little girls, and vice versa. It even felt unacceptable for a moment.
This incident was like a short demonstration of everything discussed in the last few paragraphs. Many special internet friendships (and our entire websites and blogs) are hanging on a single, vulnerable link. It could be broken the next moment, and the conversation could be lost forever, midway. All it takes is a fleeting second of reality.
Suddenly the technology looks insufficient. Perhaps the increasingly growing social web would make up for it. Perhaps Google actually has an online failsafe program in the making. (As stated in the above update, now Google has an afterlife manager :))
Hello et! You are right about having internet friends, and not being able to know them extremely well. But that's the way it is. After sending that email, sms, reply etc. we turn away from their lives and concentrate on ours.
ReplyDeleteWe might find some awesome individuals we loved to be friends with. Hey, it's a relationship, only we both can make it happen ;)
i dont get the fun of omegle. but online friends CAN be so much more than ADD-impaired. i have you (yes!) and a handful of other online friends who exist beyond the virtual realm and would definitely notice when i'm up and bounding or when im down.
ReplyDeletenice write up anyhoo.
cheers!
@Shadow
ReplyDeleteI think in the coming months we'll see how facebook will become an 'organic' part of our social life. Just the involvement of people online will bridge more gaps :)
@Raphael min ho
Internet friends become better when other media come into the scene. Like sms, phone calls, even letters! referring to the main theme of the write up, more the connections, merrier the relationship :)
Loved the Kin-Jong image. Amazing write-up. I have very few internet friends and you are amongst those few. I always thought how will I let the person on the other end of the terminal know if I am admitted in the ICU. You reciprocated my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI even have thought about Digital Afterlife & wrote about it here: http://www.crazyengineers.com/the-digital-afterlife-data-is-immortal/
Do solutions exist? Only time will tell.