I have been using the internet for more 9 years now for multiple occasions: e-mail, networking sites, and for school. I have made friendships that existed exclusively in cyberspace. For an example, San Jose State University has a website called Blackboard, made exclusively for students taking online classes. I am currently enrolled in 2 online classes so I am on Blackboard more than 4 times a week for my classes. Because I and other online students, are required to be on Blackboard, I have made friends with some of my classmates. These "friends" are more like acquaintances; we are there to support each other academically. I have never made "friends" with someone in cyberspace in such a way where I feel comfortable sharing my personal information with. The relationship that I do have with my classmates on Blackboard is a combination of professional and casual interactions. We are formal with one another when it comes to discussing class work, but we are informal when we are talking about school, life, future, etc. To be honest, I don't trust my classmates enough to truly share how I feel about our classes and other information.
The cyberspace relationship is really different in that we don't get to see the facial or physical reactions of the other person. All we see is the words typed and we can only feel the emotions of the words through the context of our conversation. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is being sarcastic of serious with their statements. I feel that face-to-face friendships are more valuable than cyberspace relationships. With face-to-face, it is more personal because you get to see, feel, touch, and smell the other person. They are real to you. Whereas with cyberspace, you never really know who you are talking to. Also with face-to-face relationship, there is also that immediate reaction that can seen right away. But with internet conversations, you can't tell how the other person received your message, you can only hope that they received it correctly.
I would much rather make friends in person than through cyberspace only because they are more tangible and plus I love face-to-face interactions. By the way, touch is my love language. I tend to touch people a lot because that is how I connect with people. So if I can't touch them or see them, the relationship is not connecting with me and it is not as valuable.
Signing Out,
Events Dreamer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Friend!
ReplyDeleteI love how you mentioned that touch is your love language, were you referring to the Five Love Languages book? I love that book and I think by mentioning that, you bring up a good point about how important f2f relationships are. Some people, like yourself, communicate best when they are physically near someone and can touch and smell and sense their presence. In an online relationship there is really none of that going on. The relationship is merely words on a screen and you are left to interpret them however you choose. It leaves a lot of room for error, confusion and lots of misunderstandings. I really liked your post, you have a lot of insightful things to say :)
Talk to ya later!
Hi Events Dreamer,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog this week. It captured several good points. First, you mentioned that, “Cyberspace relationships are really different in that we cannot see the facial and physical reactions of the other person. We see the words typed and we can only feel the emotions of the words through the context of our conversation.” I agree, in that we can only perceive the nonverbal of the other person and even then, we could be wrong. Next, as we build friendships face to face than through cyberspace, we develop a richer relationship. I like what you said about “touch is your language.” I am a person who likes to hug my friends when I say hello and goodbye. To me, it tells me how much deeper and genuine my f2f friendships are. In contrast, a cyberspace friendship could not satisfy me. I would feel something is missing.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteGood post. I agree with you that face-to-face frindships are more valuable than those in cyberspace. Being able to see a persons immediate facial expression or reaction when having a conversation, helps you to get to the know the person and their personality. In cyberspace that is not possible, You have to assume the emotion that the person is trying to convey which makes it more impersonal. Although I must say that I have came into contact with many of my friends from highschool and we have formed closer relationships than I thought we would. So maybe it just depends on the type of friendship and communication style.