A new challenge not present when everyone you knew was from your area: How do you know this person?
With text messages and twitter, conciseness is valued and practiced. Outside of those, typing is faster than handwriting and there is no physical limit on length, just what someone is willing to read.
Due to text communications, personal hygiene and appearance are less important than proper spelling and grammar. Now it is possible to have strong connections with people without knowing their real name or what they look like. Avoiding the meatspace completely is easy, so skills such as making eye contact, small talk, and strong handshakes decay.
A new challenge not present when everyone you knew was from your area: How do you know this person?
This has become increasingly true for me. There are several people across the world who I regularly converse with and referring to them in every day conversation with (meatspace) friends and family tends to be full of qualifiers: E.g. “This friend in the US I met over tumblr”, or “That guy from the Magic: The Gathering forum.”
When talking about people I know “in real life”, I don’t feel the need to qualify where I met them.
A new challenge not present when everyone you knew was from your area: How do you know this person?
With text messages and twitter, conciseness is valued and practiced. Outside of those, typing is faster than handwriting and there is no physical limit on length, just what someone is willing to read.
Due to text communications, personal hygiene and appearance are less important than proper spelling and grammar. Now it is possible to have strong connections with people without knowing their real name or what they look like. Avoiding the meatspace completely is easy, so skills such as making eye contact, small talk, and strong handshakes decay.
This has become increasingly true for me. There are several people across the world who I regularly converse with and referring to them in every day conversation with (meatspace) friends and family tends to be full of qualifiers: E.g. “This friend in the US I met over tumblr”, or “That guy from the Magic: The Gathering forum.”
When talking about people I know “in real life”, I don’t feel the need to qualify where I met them.