Social Networking

The Internet has changed the way people interact with each other. There used to be days when you would meet your friends everyday, hang out, do stuff. When you moved away, friends grew distant, and sometimes faded away into the darkness of time. New places, meant new friends, new faces, new lives.

These days things are different. Friends, if you want them to be, can be in touch wherever you go. Whenever you need them, they can be reached. The Internet was quite responsible for all this. Childhood friends, continue to grow with you, albeit through the interface of a messenger, or mails. But is this good? It can cause life to be static. Always clinging on to the past, never letting the present into your soul. Thats one way to look at it.

In a world where trust is hard to come by, why should we risk ourselves to exposure to new things. Its dangerous, and usually not very helpful to us. In a world where everyone is closed unless they need to be, how can we let anyone in at all?

This is where social networking on the Internet changes the board a little. With all these sites online to bring like minded people together, or even people who've been long lost, the playing field opens up. Just this past week, I found friends from elementary and middle school from my previous tryst with this country online. What a joy it is to reconnect with the people from those days, if only to see whats become of the world you knew. People change. Grown up in a world where everyone is a doctor or an IT professional, its a welcome change to come across writers, singers, lawyers, therapists and the so called "unconventional proffessional fields."

Networking is turning out to be quite an important aspect of life these days. The person with the most useful contacts usually comes out ahead. In the age of information, the more people you know, the higher chances you get to know of something important.

But whats the cost of all this?