Meeting People Online vs. In Person

Continuing from our discussion today, I think part of the reason why we are losing our stronger ties is because of a few things. For one thing, there seems to be so many diverse groups out there, that people lose their direction. Being a part of many online groups, you’ll make ties, but won’t have enough time to keep up with all of them, so you may not get to really learn about each individual person. Another thing is that we take the easy way out, by writing online, and forget how to maintain our social skills in real life, because we aren’t practicing them as much. We’re taking the easy way out, by writing, and taking the extra time to think about what we are saying. Then when we get into social situations, perhaps there are long pauses, because we aren’t used to talking on the spot. It becomes a real problem. Then we become lazy at intiating conversations, and such. Then it’s difficult for someone to get to know you and for you to get to know someone, if you don’t talk as much. Or we become impatient, and are rude when we cut someone off (in person) to talk to our friends via text messaging. I don’t do this, but always I feel like my pressence doesn’t mean anything to them, when my friends do this. But maybe it’s the feeling of security they get, knowing that they are tied to people across borders. But it’s like this is how we distance ourselves from people, because we don’t appreciate the long pauses that often give us time to reflect on another’s words and ideas.

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