The DNA of Internet Friendship!

As I type, I am sitting in one of the many hotels in Singapore, in the cornermost room of the top floor. There is absolutely no one I have spoken to today using my vocal chords, except some work colleagues on my work assignment and the person at the restaurant I had lunch. But I have been in touch with a lot of people around the world and equally in the opposite direction.

Internet being the backbone, but GTalk and Yahoo Messengers have changed forever the way we behave and live. Now a days, its no longer the 'lets go for a walk..' syndrome of friendship. Life's dearer relationship has been reduced to a couple of lines here and there, some offline too.

Racing against timezones, and adapting to different work cultures and expectations has taken a lot out of our personal space and its going to be even worse in the coming years. The aspect of establishing a friendship circle spanning the globe is really a challenge and something which not too many ppl can claim success at. Seeing a person tete-en-tete and chatting to him/her are two contrasting ball games and internet and its magic tools cant get friendship any closer or make it more natural.

IT professionals especially, working in the odd places, odd enough to be alone, have to bear the brunt of the loneliness which surrounds them. Its a bit of luck to always have company to go places with. For me, I have always been happy to be alone. I realise that it gives me a lot of time to waste, but also the time to think back at things I want to improve upon. It gives me the room (literally speaking - a big one) to assess what mistakes I am making...!

Sitting in California, one of my good college friends has no time to reply back to my email. Obviously one cant feel disappointed in such a situation. Such is life. Out of Sight, Out of Mind is truly the truth. But its also interesting that chatting can make two strangers get along very well in very little time. I have to say, I did get to chat with some of my college friends, with whom I have never spoken anything friendly during our 4 years together, with the help of internet - we are quite able to converse and exchange ideas too!

Is internet and our new way of life, therefore, all about reaching to new people while our existing bank of friends get eroded silently. Is this all that is left for this generation to yearn for? Sites like Orkut have indeed brought together a platform to keep each other informed, but it does seem that gone are those days when one used to go out with all our friends in that remote place called pondicherry/pilani. Those times seem utopian indeed.

With every day that has passed, we all have missed saying a lot of things to each other, some good, some bad, but most importantly all 'timely'. Most of us are living a zone which only underlines the power of ONE or if you have a family, the strength of TWO.

Friends will come and go, but friendship stays - was the old saying.
Friendship will come and go, though friends wont - is probably the new mantra.