Artificial Friendship?
I was newly struck by the artificial nature of being online after reading the responses on a recent blog named ‘Dinner For Six’.
What particularly struck me was the way some of us – I include myself here – apologized to our other friends for not having them on our invitation lists. Others refrained from giving names at all in fear of offending friends. Is the bond of friendship online so frail that we are too scared to invite some friends and not the others?
If you were to win such a prize in real life and you had 12 friends, would you rather stay home and forfeit the prize so not to offend our friends? I think not. Would you, in real life, ask the sponsor or organizer to expand the guest list to 12? No, you won’t.
You will invite 5 friends without even having to apologize to anybody, knowing they will understand. And you will come back bragging to them about how you enjoyed the evening. After all, the prize allowed for only 5 guests and if they are true friends there will be no ill feelings.
If one of your friends got 5 rugby, soccer, opera, cinema or whatever tickets and does not ask you along, will you be offended? If you are offended then you are not such a good friend at all. You cannot monopolize your friend. Like you, he/she is entitled to other friends as well.
So why do we want to treat online friends better than in real life? Friends who use names we’re not sure about, pictures that may be fake, doing a jobs that may not be true and claiming to be where they may not be. What is so special about online friends that we want to wrap them in cotton wool?
I wonder if you could guess how much time I spend finding the right words in a comment and how many euphemisms I use; only not to alienate myself from friends… but in real life, I call a spade a spade.
True friends take much more to be offended.
Stick around. Friday is still a long way off.
Comments (134)
We live to eat, over here!
You have to try our Durian!
Angel pulls away at the end to pull out a stunning win!
:
She may be down, folks, but she ain't out!
That little Malaysian Mauler has heart...you can bet we'll be seeing more of Mimi in the wild world of competitive blog comment posting.
P.S I should've worn my lucky charm!
I go to install Linux on my laptop and when I come back I get a surprise!
Great speech, Angel! Spoken like a classy winner!
I hear what you say and you are probably right. It is unfair if you have a party and you only invite some while you had the space to accommodate all but what if you cannot invite all 11 of your friends. Should they not understand that some has to be left out?
The Malaysian Mauler vs. The U.K. Walloper vs. The U.S. of A.'s Destroying Angel.
The prize tonight is half (I took the other half) a pizza from that half price pizza joint Jim spoke about.
UK Wallops is on hiatus. She's probably in France now...going on a cruise down the River Seine..Aaaahhhhh....how romantic
I have finished my half but you can have a big bite of my burger.
I won't be able to finish it all after the pizza.
And a slice of cake
Cat...I presume you're referring to that previously mentioned old blog, long ago stalled out at 98?
Yes, I'm sure. You must have done it before.
There is another one for grabs but I won't tell anybody where.
Oohhh please do tell, please please pretty please??
Catfoot, the burger is yummy, may I take the whole thing??
Shhht!
And now everybody will think we are the same person because you answered before I spoke about it.
I did it, too! Snuck a post in between a double post.
You must be scattering that Angel dust around real good!
......
Has anyone seen our Angel??? She has gone so quiet after winning those steak knives! You think she has gone back to try 'em out immediately??
I think Angel has the right idea...bring something back for those who were not invited. Or perhaps an invitation to lunch the following week? Or something however small to 'include' those not included in the dinner for 6.
Angel, I'm sure at least half a dozen people already brought you leftovers! Nice try sister!
It was not a double post.
I removed the original comment because of an error and reposted it. You always run the risk that this may happen when you do it. I took a chance and it did not work.
I only know as much as you do....earlier, Cat mentioned the fabled existence of a legendary ancient blog stalled out at 98
Where it is, nobody knows. Finding it would require a quest. ..Like the Holy Grail...or the Lost Continent of Atlantis. But there's a set of steak knives waiting for the true adventurer willing to accept the challenge!
I've been meaning to talk to him about that...He keeps the visor down all the time. I think he's shy.
or paranoid.
Either way, that dude could REALLY use some sun.
Hmmm. ..Maybe he's a vampire!
Ummm. .."Ginger" may also be a term for a person with red hair.
Next thing, you'll be telling me you put ground Ginger on bbq-ed Squid.
Yummy Mic!!
I'd hate to see your recipe for an ITALIAN pizza!
I am making a Spice Cake