Alone in a connected world.

A long time ago I remember a friend telling me a joke and it was hilarious. So hilarious that I laughed out and laughed for long. Years later I have mastered the art of a straight face while my fingers type “LOL”. The point – how authentic is my communication? If we were to take a slow look around us we would find people who merely exist or inhabit the physical world but live in a virtual one. They sit in the presence of 30 colleagues but their conversations happen in a virtual what’s app or google talk world. I have been guilty of having a “deep” conversation online with someone who thinks they have my full undivided attention while the truth is there is another chat-box open with another friend over the most trivial and meaningless of things. That’s the beauty of the internet after all. No one can see me and I remain in control of my conversations and interactions. I don’t have to be part of a group if I don’t want to and I can leave any conversation at any time without any reason offered. I can hide my hurts behind strategically placed LOL’s and my fears behind convenient ROTFL’s (if you don’t know what those are… catch up a few generations).

As I look at all my virtual interactions and conversations I can see that with all the blackberry’s iPhones, Androids and the likes our world is probably more communicative than ever before. Our world is probably more connected than ever before. But while our connections may be authentic our conversations are not. I am confronted with the absurd paradox that thanks to FB and twitter updates though more people know about me and my life less people actually know me or are in my life. I ask myself the question Have I sadly traded authentic communication for virtual connectedness?

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