There are few words that are well-known everywhere in the world. And I
bet the names of the sites for social contacts like facebook, myspace,
sodahead, etc are already amongst the first ten of these magical words.
Knowing and liking are two very different things, a lot of people think
such sites are nothing else but a waste of time (of the worst kind at that). A
friend of mine, for example, thinks that to „friend” someone at facebook or
myspace, etc is just a pressing of a little, virtual button. This action
couldn’t replace the „real” friendship, as so called „virtual” friends wouldn’t
be so concerned about someone’s problems and mishaps and couldn’t help any of
their web-pals as any of the real friends (friends with a capital F) would
do...
On the other hand, many other users of these famous sites (including me)
would oppose that pressing the „friending” button means much more. It doesn’t
include just an agreement to let some people in your world of photos,
experience, way of life, etc. It also means after that one could find enormous
quantity of inspiration, some good advices, even love and lots of the eternal
wisdom. The most amazing thing about the virtual friendship is that we could
find all these good sides of Internet friending amongst friends all over the
world, discovering the vast fields of knowledge about other cultures, customs,
way of life, way of thinking, etc. As a reply to all the guys who cannot stand
the sight of the social sites, I would like to remind a short scene of the
well-made animation Cloudy, With a Chance Of Meatballs. It was at the end of
the movie, where the father of the main character had to use his son’s useful
thought-reading device to say all the good things about love and appreciation he
felt, which he couldn’t utter aloud in the presence of his talented but absent-minded heir. That’s what sites for social contacts
could do too, posting some notes with our secret and peculiar, yet good
speculations, showing some of the amazing photos we made, updating our status
with thoughts that reveal our true selves would be the perfect way to tell
anyone our true feelings and reveal our true character... Oftentimes, it’s a
much better way to find real friends, so called friends with a capital F, as in
real life we usually couldn’t say the things that inspire and trouble us so
well as using the benefits of a site for social contacts.
My personal experience proves that every word of the above statements is
true. Actually, I started using sites like facebook, sodahead, etc as a way for
marketing of my book/s. This was what my publisher suggested, yet soon I
discovered such sites were a perfect tool for finding good friends all over the
world, the truth behind world news, the funny side behind most of the world
events, the great realm of the useful tips and advices many virtual friends
could offer, etc. It turned out that the knowledge of some of my vurtual
friends surpassed a lot what my so called „real” friends coud let me know. For
example, no one of my pals from the real world could explain to me the basic
rules for surfing the big sea waves with the elegant surfing boards. Soon after
I became a daily user of the famous sites, I realized they could be used as a
combination of the best news publications and tv news programs, as at facebook or myspace one could see the reality
behind the well-presented strive for power and money of the „higher” class, or
the real cause for many horrible events. That way, sites for social contacts
could become irreplaceable when the matter at hand is the best choice in
elections, the wise decisions to be made for home repairing, healthcare,
fitness, pet raising, etc.
My father (and many other older people too, I guess) claims that the
young of today don’t know how to have real fun, staying all day long at their
laptops and computers, forgetting the wonders of the real world. BTW, he
couldn’t distinguish a stie from an e-mail address, but it’s not an obstacle
for him to say at the time of his youth times were totally different (the sun
shone brighter, people knew how to have real fun, visitng one another’s places,
dancing in the villages’ squares every weekend and holiday, signing the old,
country songs that have nothing in common with today’s „crap” texts and
melodies, etc). Yet, what people like my father would probably never realize is
the wonders that modern world offers are not less wonderful and magnificent
than what men and women in the past times could experience. The benefits of
sites for social contacts (finding friends, wisdom, good tips, inspiration,
true facts behind the news, etc) are just one small part of the present time,
indeed. However, they all are good enough to be amongst top ten of the most
used words of today.
www.allanbard.blogspot.com,
www.allanbard.wordpress.com
