Jami

I have been thinking of the nature of internet friendships. I have a few friends, people I do consider friends, that I have never actually seen in person. People that I care about, confide in, pray for. People that I'd would certainly not have crossed paths with if not for this crazy contraption called the internet. You can go many places to hear about how online friends and communications are making us less social, more isolated, etc. It's true that if I feel lonely and want to go out for a beer, my internet friends aren't going to be able to help. But I also talk to a lot of stay-at-home moms who found a lifeline on the internet - you can't call your next door neighbor when you're nursing at 3am and sure that you are alone in the world, but you can log on and almost always find another mom at her wit's end looking for a friendly "voice". Friendships are hard to start. You usually need to find some sort of common ground, even if it's just a tv show you both like or the fact that you both hate people who fake run across the crosswalk in front of your car, like that's somehow saving you some time. That's where the internet does what hanging out in real life may not. I made some friends at the Firefly fan board years ago. Big dorks, yup, just like me. I had a great fun-filled weekend in Vegas with those guys, an experience that I'd have missed without making friends with them. I guess what I am saying is that friends are valuable, and you can have both the fleshy real ones and the more ethereal internet ones (in fact, you should have at least a few of the former, even if you have tons of the latter). I appreciate having these folks in my life however they have arrived and for as long as they'll stay. In the words of the Golden Girls - thank you for being a friend.