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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Friendships 1.0 and otherwise




In a relatively recent study conducted by Crowd Science about 36% of respondents said they prefer to keep in touch with friends through social media than by phone. On the bright side, about 8 in 10 people prefer face-to-face contact, although there are 10% of weirdos who actually prefer online media.

I have to admit I am one of those people who use online tools—be it email, or social media sites—much more than the phone, even though I send a lot of text messages. Someone I know recently said to me that text messages are the postcards of today—what a romantic way to look at it (for the record, I am also one of possibly no more than 10 people on the planet who sends real, paper postcards every now and then). Phone conversations don’t do it for me, being a poor relation to real face-to-face contact; yes, you hear the voice, but there is no time to relax and talk about things that matter, it always stays on the surface unless you have hours to spare. I really much prefer to sit down and write a long and thoughtful email.

Or, for that matter, a blog post. Because, this is how it all started for us, way back when Andrej was a baby and we had little time on our hands but wanted to keep friends updated. So we figure a blog would do the trick. We quickly realized, though, that we have no inspiration for recording our everyday lives, and why should we? I personally don’t care about what my friends are doing every minute of their waking lives; what I want to know instead is what they are thinking, what inspires them, what are the things they feel passionate about.

This is why this blog evolved very quickly from a diary into something where we share a bit of our inner lives. It’s not a substitute for real-life exchanges of thoughts, or what a friend of mine calls “relationships 1.0,” and it is not meant to substitute 1-on-1 communication, either. But it makes me really happy when friends—particularly those whom I see only a few times a year, or I don’t see at all-- tell me that they read something I wrote and it resonated with them, or they thought it was interesting, or it made them think.

Ideally, we would be sharing our thoughts over a glass of wine and a leisurely dinner that would extend well into the night, and possibly until dawn. That’s relationships 1.0 at their best, but in between those (alas, too rare) encounters, we have to substitute somehow—enter relationships 2.0. We are simply sharing animals like that…


5 comments:

Polly said...

I'm the same when it comes to phones, I prefer texting or emailing than spending long hours on the phone or skype. Obviously, nothing can replace face-to-face situations...

The only thing I can't get my head around is twitter. I got my IPhone so that I could twitter more but it didn't help. Twittering is odd. It's like talking to oneself in a supermarket aisle, and I do that way too much anyway!

Jelica said...

I use Twitter to keep abreast of what is going on in my field but not for keeping in touch with friends (except Spud :). Very few of my friends are on Twitter and even those who are already have a FB account so it's a duplication.

bussola said...

I love writing…. for this reason I prefer writing a email or a post on my blog…. It’s my best way to express my thoughts and myself

Unknown said...

I'm the same with phones, and I feel exactly like that about friendships 1.0 and 2.0. Nothing like a meeting face to face (soon!) but if that's not possible, isn't an e-meeting (in the form of a blog post or email) better than not being in touch?

Delwyn said...

Hi Jelica

Would you be interested in mail art - corresponding in a funky individualistic way...let me know and I will tell you about a little project I have begun

Happy days