Friday, December 11, 2015

Facebook Cleanse

When you travel, or move, it's normal for relationships to wither and die. Without regular in-person contact, the will to hold on to the connection gets weak. In light of this, applications such as Facebook seem to have a way of artificially keeping a dying relationship alive. Is the tether between two people, based on electronic communication, of the same quality as regular face-to-face contact?

The first time I came to Spain, I made great, great friends at Sunseed. Back then, I wasn't on Facebook, so I tried to email once in a while. After a couple of exchanges, we let it go. I hold on to wonderful memories, and I have pictures that make me smile everytime I look at them.

Then I signed up for Facebook. As I made friends along the way, I added some to my account. I have moved a lot over the past few years, and some people have moved in and out of my life. Every few months, I “cleanse” my list of friends. I sometimes delete people I'm 99% sure I'll never see again, because I don't see any point in viewing snapshots of their lives. I don't have a need to know what's happening with them. We shared a part of our lives with each other, and now we've gone on separate paths. In my opinion, it's artificial to hold on to an electronic connection with someone and claim them as your “friend”, without ever seeing them in person. Even though years go by between visits to Canada, I still maintain my connection with my Canadian friends because I know I'll see them again in person.
See you soon!
I've had a few negative comments from people I've dropped from my account. Yet I haven't seen these people in person for an extremely long time, and I doubt I'll ever see them again. Perhaps one day, if we do bump into each other, we'll rekindle the friendship. But it'll have to be over coffee, and not over the internet.

Do you agree with this blog post? Or do you think I'm a cold-hearted *****? Share your comments below! 

No comments:

Post a Comment