Mind Block Shift

If you’re reading this blog entry, you’re obviously aware of how the world has gone digital and all that. You also might be aware of the constant over-analyzing done in terms of how the virtual world harms your actual one. Analysis that has the most secure and content people doubting the depth of their lives.

“If you have so many friends on Facebook that means you hardly speak to any of them.” “You’re a compulsive friend-collector, without having any meaningful relationship with that friend…” “How is it possible for you to keep in touch with so many people? "How can this be fulfilling? Get out of this virtual world…”

Is it possible for all these over-analyzers to fathom the fact that one can have a very, very full life online AS WELL AS offline – and one’s life offline is often the reason one’s life seems socially fulfilling online? Everyone doesn’t have to be a lonely depressed person – bordering on psychoses, just because they enjoy online social networking. Everyone does not have to be a loser pretending to be a girl on chat just for a lark. There are enough people on this planet who have managed to win hearts both in the flesh and through a computer screen.

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Now while I’m all for going out and meeting people, developing one-to-one relationships and chatting for hours on the phone – I also don’t see the harm in keeping in touch with this world through the internet. What might be too trivial to make a call for or type an SMS about is easy to share on a chat window or an email. Distance doesn’t separate me from my cousins’ inner-most feelings. My school pals can drop a note anytime – and I’ll know what’s happening with them even though we haven’t met in 10 years. My friends can now read my thoughts through my blog – hell, I don’t have to call and update 63 people when something good happens in my life!

In fact, this way I feel closer to my world – sharing stuff I could have never shared before – learning more about them than I ever knew.

That’s not to say one shouldn’t be exclusive. If you choose your friend lists carefully and share sensibly, these social networking sites often come out with more positives than negatives.

So instead of writing articles about how technology is isolating the world, instead of giving discourses in offices about how ‘in those days, we relied on physical presence to make a mark etc’, embrace your present – go out, make those friends, get to know them. Then use these websites for what they’re meant. To keep in touch and connect better with your world – keeping it fuller every day.