Jane Nicholls created a Troubled post today that had me thinking. She is feeling troubled about the balance between spending too much time with virtual friends as opposed the face to face variety.
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I have spent the last twelve weeks in self imposed exile from many of my face to face friends as they follow their careers and family commitments. This self imposed exile from paid employment was brought about for the need to care for myself and my mother as we came to terms with her diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease and the failure of my knee joints to osteo-arthritis and cartilage depletion meaning I had to spend quite some time on crutches.
During this time I had more time than usual to explore things on-line and less time with face to face friends as I dealt with doctor and hospital visits.
My virtual friends were not there to help mow the lawns or do the household chores but then my face to face friends weren’t there either as they worked full time or pursued their own family commitments. Some face to face friends stayed in contact via Web2.0 tools- email and Skype.
Some of my global, virtual friends though offered me moral support as well. Although I have never met some they are as real as people that live more locally. They helped me feel connected and still part of things even when I was forced to stay at home. Paul (Wales) offered moral support and conversation, Sheryl (Virginia) invited me to join her in Shanghai, Chris and I worked together in Sydney, Miguel (Texas) lent me a hand with my tech problem, Ewan (Scotland) included us in the birth of his baby girl and I communicated with others via Twitter, email and commenting. Some of these people I will probably never meet face-to-face but I still call them friends. These people are all part of my real life.
