Connection-Disconnection

It seems like everyone these days either has a blog, an account on myspace or one on facebook. It has changed the way people communicate. Now you don't need to email everyone to tell them what's going on in your life. All they need is access to the internet and they can read all about it. You can even include pictures. It creates this false reality where we are losing out on true communication. For the most part I don't talk on the phone any more.... I figure if you want to know how I'm doing just check out the web site. Now at the moment there are a few things that I am keeping very quiet about... mainly because I can't say anything. But I wonder if we are more connected now or if we are more disconnected... I had posted before about whether or not it really is a global community and I still wonder that.

I'm also back to wondering if we are more open and honest with our blogs or if we are merely hiding behind the shield of anonymity that the internet brings with it. Would I say the same things to someone in person that I say here? Even better, would I be willing to say it to anyone? Now I can easily say the answer to that would be no... After all there are boundaries in any relationship and I wouldn't necessarily disclose everything about myself to anyone. Yet I am willing to "bare my soul" here.

It comes back to the way the internet is changing how we communicate. I'm starting to wonder what a real conversation is like... one without internet shorthand, a web post, or an email.... I was recently on MSN chatting with a few different people (the internet does have some advantages) and the conversation went on for a lot longer then it probably would've if we had been talking in the real world. But then the flip side of that is the fact I had work to do that didn't get done. I'm sure most people can attest to losing vast amounts of time to the internet for a wide variety of reasons. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with the internet,... both good and bad and just how it will shape our personal relationships.