I've written previously about how the internet both connects and isolates us, the benefits and downfalls of social networking sites, like Facebook. I'm continuously fascinated by the Internet and sites like Facebook which offer an easy way to maintain connections with friends and family. But social networking sites are also redefining the idea of what a "friend" is. I would venture to guess that the majority of social networking site users have never even met many of their so-called "friends."
A recent article in the Washington Post explores the phenomenon of what it terms Friends Next:
"For most people, when they thought of their close friends, it was people with whom they would share personal things," says Sherry Turkle, a sociologist and psychologist at MIT who has studied online social networks from their beginnings. "What's changing now is that people who are not in the other person's physical life meet in this very new kind of space. It is leaving room for new hybrid forms."Can you be or have a friend without ever having met? Without having shared experiences and memories? Can one person really have thousands of "friends"?
It really is a brave, new world...
