Thursday 26 June 2014

On line friendships

Please excuse me. I am just nattering now...all the people who I talked to last week have gone home and I find that although I am still talking to the odd stranger my need to chat idly is growing daily which is why I am spending more time on the social media platforms like twitter and Facebook.

Up to this week I have dived in and out of them often only in the mornings but now lacking any sentient voice I find myself reaching for the iPad.

My friends in internet sites are usually known to me...some from old lives left behind years ago but still precious to me. Some though are that internet phenomena ,the people who have supported me, laughed with me, wept with me though we have never met!

In some cases it's a meeting of minds...finding another human being of a similar mind,whose life pathways are very different but have somehow ended up in the same place though often not geographically.

It is quite extra ordinary that through this medium we are able to chat, to laugh, to connect with people we would pass by if we met them in the street.

The net has many faults...all the scams, the drivel spewed out daily by political parties, the trolls, the seducers trying to sell us things we don't need and the real downright nasties . But the good side for me completely washes the daft side out.

I play games with people I knew twenty odd years ago. I chat on line to people I may not have seen since we were very young..

When you get to old age, these links with the past are important...they are the anchors that remind us of where we came from and what drove us then as now.

The new friends, the ones we never meet are just as important...they are not sad or lonely, they are people who, finding a new way of communication in their old age , make full use of it.

Everything worth while in life is capable of being misused, degraded or just plain abused. But the internet really can make a difference to the old as well as the young...it gives us the grace to communicate, to love each other and to laugh a lot! I'll put up with the frustrations to get the whole package...

 

3 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

The connections formed with people we have never met and probably never will meet are, to my mind, just as important as those we make on a day-to-day basis.
The good thing about reading other people's blogs is that it is possible to drop those which offend or irritate, while developing and nurturing those which appeal.
Reading and communicating with you online has been of immense value to me.
Seeing how you have dealt with a seemingly endless battery of blows and still somehow come up smiling, has been an absolute inspiration to one whose nature is very different.
Your slightly barmy response to some situations has tickled my own whacky off-beat sense of humour, and your optimism in facing each day has changed for the better, the way I view life's problems.
There are about a dozen blogs - all quite different - which I really look forward to reading and learning from.
I have one old friend from my youth with whom I occasionally 'touch base', and that is also of real value.
Keep blogging X

Revjeanrolt said...

Thank you Ray...You are a joy to communicate with.....one of who makes life worth living..

UKViewer said...

Well said Jean. You're right that keeping contacts with people from years ago is important, Sadly, when I left East London to join the Army I lost contact with everyone, even much of my family. While I'm now back in contact with many, I'm still missing many. Some who frankly I won't miss, others who I'd love to make contact with.

But social media has opened up a whole new world for so many, young and old. I have met many people via social media, some of whom I've gone on to meet in the flesh, others whom I'm unlikely to ever meet due to geography, increasing age and amazingly, as I get my state pension, a three year academic course to train as a Licensed Lay Minister. Jen is still working and will be for a year or so more (delight in marrying a younger woman) but I long for the day when we can do more together than we can on weekends or the occasional time off together.

Due to commitments to our cats we've not had a holiday outside the UK since our trip to Madeira in 2007, but we're hoping to find someone to look after them next year to allow that to happen.

Love reading your posts. Off course, prayers continue for you here.