Said By Brad

Now first off, I know it’s not like me to write anything here that might even vaguely impinge on emotional. But it was something that recent events in my (online) life have made me think about. Chances are if your reading this you either A) Play Runescape (for some reason 40%+ of my hits are from google image search) B) Post on RSBANDB or C) Know me in some way or another. So at least 2 out of those 3 categories guarantee that you are involved in a kind of online community, and most likely within that community you will probably have several (if not more) people that you are closer to and speak to more often. Friends.

But online friendships aren’t really the same as real life friendships obviously. Most of the time we don’t make judgments on appearance, race etc. Whereas in real life we do. Whether we think we are or not. I myself have got to know a number of people well over the past 2 years that I’ve been involved with RSBANDB, and more recently WoW. I guess it’s the same as real life, you know a much larger demographic of people, but you are closer to and speak to a certain minority.

I myself went through an extremely lonely phase of my life, roughly one year to 18 months ago. Didn’t leave the house much if at all. Didn’t speak to anybody in real life besides my teachers and parents. My online friends were like a lifeline to me. Although they can’t (Well I think) provide the sort of social satisfaction that being around friends in real life can. It’s certainly a boost to ones confidence and morale. I am, thankfully, through that phase of my life. I don’t rely on my online friends as my sole source of social contact anymore, I have real friends.

Which (after a rather lengthy introduction ;o) brings me on to the main purpose of this post. You’ve probably already guessed by the title what it’s vaguely about. One thing I despise above all others about talking to people online is; the fact that they can disappear so easily, they can just vanish and you may never speak to them again. Yes, granted if you become that close to them you may exchange phone numbers or other forms of contact. But if I was to walk out into the street now and get mown down by a bus. How am I meant to call you? How am I meant to email you? I can’t, because I’m dead. If you knew someone in real life, you’d know if they died or sustained a serious injury. Someone would tell you, maybe a family member or another relative. But I doubt that when someone passes away that the first reaction of the close family is to jump on the computer and inform the persons MSN list about it. (Which is why I’m extremely skeptical about people making topics about brother/sister/friend dieing, on forums, If someone close to you did die you wouldn’t run to the nearest computer and inform the world about it, but that’s another subject.)

I’ve had several friends that I can recount whom I’ve spoken to on a regular basis who have one day, just disappeared. Never to be seen again, without warning nor call. Unless your on close terms with somebody’s family (which if you met somebody on a game, I doubt you would be). You are not likely to be informed of their death, if they did die. Although with some of the people I knew I can think of no other reason. That’s what I don’t like about online friendships

Sometimes you never get to say “goodbye”.

Filed under: