graceland's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you my friend today? I've been thinking a lot about friendship. In this day and age when committment wanes and relationships seem to be borrowed time like leased cars, friendship has taken the place of the traditional relationship. In the past, relationships were the foundation of two people's lives. Friends were something they had as a couple. Jobs were things they did to support families. Now, in the day and age of friendster, where friends can be added or deleted, swapped and counted, friendships are the new relationships. The catch, is that friendships seem to be moving in the direction of the relationship. With the advent of the Internet and web communities of friends, the true meaning of friendship seems to be moving to the wayside. People forge fast and deep relationships and then, when they lose their new car smell, abandon them in the great beyond of the world wide web. So what is the new friendship? TiVO? Can we, as a society who bases communication on a keyboard and text messaging, be capable of maintaining lifelong friendships while we check off new boxes in search of "activity partners" and "just here to help?" Gone are the days of family portraits beyond that intended to adorn the Christmas card, instead, we rush to primp for our camera phones in order to upload new images to attract more friends, only to reinvent ourselves yet again when our passwords change and we invest in a new Zac Posen dress. Who am I to question this societal movement, if not a part of it, I can be accused of leading it. Trying to close myself off from anyone who comes close to knowing me, running from anyone who might know my history, constantly trying to reinvent myself into something that I think is more interesting, more appealing, more exciting to those I have not met beyond a computer monitor. Have we thought about the consequences behind this new lifestyle? What's left when we treat friendship as the new vagabonds? What's left when you have no support system, no confidantes and eventually, no family? Perhaps the only thing remaining is a visit from a home remodeling TV show. And suddenly a fictional, made-for-TV support group will come in, zip up your life with splashes of color and pretense of commaraderie and gaily provide you with outside support to achieve the perfect pantone you. And there we will be, alone in a festival of technicolor, left to enjoy the spoils of our reinvention, alone. With 5 new photos of ourselves on friendster to illustrate how perfectly friendly we can be in our comely residences. Until a better group of friends comes along. 8:57 p.m. - 2004-02-24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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