"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed, that can make life a garden."
~ Goethe
It used to be that it took effort to maintain friendships.
If your friend was on the phone, you only got a busy signal. Long Distance calls were expensive. Phones were not carried around everywhere - if someone wasn't at home or at work you had no way to reach them. The internet and email didn't exist. Letters had to be typed or handwritten. And if you lost touch with someone, it was harder to get back into contact - no magical Google to find them.
And now, we have texting, cell phones, email, voice mail, Facebook, Skype. We have ways of finding long lost friends, ways of getting in touch with each other any time of the day.
But...does this mean that friendships are stronger? Or do all these ways of being in contact, in almost constant contact, create cracks in the foundations of friendships that might not exist if not for the new technology?
Now, don't get me wrong, I love the fact I'm able to post on my high school friends' walls on Facebook. I love how email allows me to share my life easily with my far-flung family and friends. I love how cell phones allow me to call any one of those friends from the grocery store because I remembered something funny. I love how texting will let me send a quick message without having to pick up the phone....and there....that's the crux of the problem. I'm able to have contact with my friends without having to have human contact, without putting forth a lot of effort.
So - are my friendships stronger for the influence of all these new technologies? Or are they weaker? I'm not sure I have an answer yet. But it has given me a lot to think about.
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