Virtual Friends!

As I was sitting here working on a new entry, my 17 year old daughter came in to ask a computer question when she noticed what I was doing. "Hey, you have a blog too? I didn't know you did that." she said she was just seeting up her own blog on her compueter. Hmm, guess that puts me in a different light in her mind... though not sure if that is always a good thing.

This blog is the result on a grad class about virtual communities. I have explored others blogs and virtual community/groups in the past, some weird, some helpful and interesting, and some plain dull. My experiences with online communities were with groups that were interested in smaller defined topics such as raising kids, specific medical issues that a family member was going through, and another made up of all women dealing with divorce.

Honestly, it was a bit odd at first getting to know people through written words only. All those sensory avenues we use to evaluate others is totally removed. It took longer to evaluate the regulars, and identifying their personalities. I found myself comparing certain ones to people I knew in person; weighing their words, reactions, opinions ... and found myself putting the faces that I knew to those I knew online. I wonder if this is typical. Anyways, I have long stopped meeting inthese communities, but think of a couple of personalities everyonce in awhile.

I just read the first two chapters in Howard Rheingold's book Virtual Communites. This is a man who has been dabbling in online communities long before most of us owned a computer, or many even had access to one. I'll bet I have a few younger classmates that had recently been born when Rheingold began his exploration and eventual addiction to online communicating.

Rheingold describes the relationships he has developed over time. He hits on the question about what makes a friendship, what connects us to others and why. So how do we relate to others as friends, adversaries, motivators, and so on? He tells personal experiences with all types of personalities, both positive and straining, who connected into digital relationships and eventually met in person. And I can't help but wonder which personality types motivated him into the person he became over time, and would this have been the same outcome had they been individuals he encountered face to face reguarly? Or is it easier to put aside the visual and auditory perspective of others in order to hear anothers thoughts more clearly?

Time and experience may help me to understand. But for right now, my very red nose is begging for an aloe coated tissue.
Night.....