Writer's Block: Celebrating Friendships

[thessalian]

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Technically speaking, I guess that would have to be gf2e, an old friend from St Christopher School (drawing a misty veil of time over the doomed on-again, off-again dating thing now fifteen years kaput; at least we're still friends). I don't for the life of me remember how I found out he had a LJ, mind you - came as the same kind of surprise to me as it must have come to him when I showed off my first email address. Possibly less intense, mind you, because when he first showed me the internet in 1994, I believe my reaction was, "What a pointless waste of time. That's what books are for." ...Yeah, the world (not to mention my world) has seriously moved on from that point, no?

Actually, the other people I see online that I've known the longest are mostly to be found on Facebook. I swear, that thing is Old Boyfriend Central. My first English boyfriend, two guys I dated in my year out, the guy I was with in my abortive uni year ... all there. Them and a whole bunch of school friends. To be fair, I barely use my Facebook account, but I keep up via Tweetdeck.

It's funny, though: when I think of the LJ friends I've known the longest, I invariably think of my friends from my days in the Daria fan community. I think it's a 'primary point of contact' thing. redstapler actually got me into LJ in the first place (I used to be on Diaryland) and of my Daria community friends, happypickle is the LJ user I've known longest, as I 'met' him when I first tried live Daria fan chat at the behest of Diane Long. But when I think about who I've known longest in an online context, I tend to think of the people I met online before I think of the people I met in meatspace and happened to trip over online some years later. Strange but true.

I'm sure a lot of people think it's kind of weird that I seldom if ever see most of my friends face to face; that, in fact, I have people I consider to be close friends who I have never seen in the flesh and may never physically meet. Maybe it is, I don't know. Me? I think it's kind of awesome. I had a bit of a philosophical rant about this in LJ ages ago, about how the internet helps to tilt the odds on meeting someone you can connect with a little more in your favour, removing that pesky geographical issue and limits the people you can be friends with to the people who have things in common with you with whom you share a language well enough to get by. It does nothing to improve the chances of romance, because you can't really tell about your chemistry with someone via text, but it sure as hell makes making friends easier.

Besides, now I have no shortage of potential holiday destinations when and if I can ever afford to go away, as all I have to do is look at a map and say, "Who do I want to meet?"

Comments

[happypickle.livejournal.com]

My mum and I have lamented that most computer books are utterly worthless because of teh internets...

(And yes, pesky geography.)