Sunday, August 20, 2006

a meta-blog posting

Do circles of friends grow more quickly in the real world, or in the digital world?

Would, for example, my friend raincoaster have met Lydia (a lurking, sometimes-commenting, not-yet blogging friend "Start blogging, woman! It's not like you don't have anything to say!") as quickly if they'd had to depend on me to finally drag them together? Instead, they meet online, through our blogs, and then hang out together in the real world.

My new friend PJ doesn't count in this question, since she's been driven to blog only after meeting me. But if she suddenly ends up having barbecues at Lydia's, then we know that there's some truth to it!

Then there is Ahmad, way off in Lebanon. Never would have connected with him without the digital world.

We've all experienced how hard it is to make new friends. You've got to be out there, aggressive even.

So, does knowing someone through their writing, before meeting them in person, make it easier?

Stories, anyone?

Lori

7 comments:

RennyBA said...

How nice to see other exsamples of blogging connecting people and as you saw yourself, my contributions:
http://rennybasblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/blogging-connecting-people.html
and
http://rennybasblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/bergen-norway-smalltown-charm-city.html
I don't now if it makes it easier in the meeting after making friends in the bloggers world, but I would never have met my blogger friends without meeting them there first.
Thanks for your visit and sharing this - have a great week ahead:-)

lifeflaw said...

Well, I met many people from chatting and I am still friends with most of them. We still call each other and occasionally meet despite the work load. :)

All in all, it was good experience meeting people after chatting. I thought a lot about this topic. (Such as here)

I met many Lebanese bloggers but I only became friends with them after meeting, so my case doesn't apply. :)

Hopefully one day, we can all have a cup of coffee in Canada or Beirut. :)

Metro said...

rennyba--were you my Norwegian? In that case, thanks. If not, thanks anyway.

From my experience I'd say friendships in the blogosphere grow more rapidly, but have about them a feeling of limitation, of temporariness. The commitment of friendships offline isn't there.

So the connections are easier to make, but perhaps not so easy to keep.

I'll join you and Ahmad for that coffee though.

Lori said...

@rennyba -- thanks! and yes, it will be a good week (I'll just ignore my scratchy throat!)

@Ahmad -- we'll have to do both, since I'd love to show you Canada, and I've always wanted to go to Lebanon. When I lived in Brazil for a year (when I was 16, on a student exchange), I lived with a Lebanese-Brazilian family who were lovely. And a lot of the Brazilian snack foods are Lebanese in origin, so I was told.

@Metro -- it's not like you'd let me meet a cute Lebanese man alone, right? (Actually, Metro doesn't have a jealous bone in his body!)

Anonymous said...

I think I've met in person more people that I first met online than anyone around. How many stories would you like?

There are always going to be a hardcore who refuse to meet in person, but in my experience they're pretty upfront about that going in, so you know their limitations. One of these people was within three blocks of my house last year, but refused to even meet me for coffee, because I was an "Internet person" rather than someone she'd first met offline. I suppose she thought I'd have tentacles or something...ah well, these people have more constrained lives than the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

Here's one story: I think I met 18 Internet friends that time.

Lori said...

well...tentacles are not that unlikely, look at your squid-tastic fascination with them!