Ever since social media became a dominant thing in today's society, people have roam its terrains with the intention of exploring and getting acquainted with other individuals all over the world. Thanks to this incredible innovation, one does not need to travel to a different country before you can have foreign friends. With just a click of a button we can now talk, stay updated with recent events regardless of the location and also see the faces of our newly made friends thanks to the introduction of the video call. Social media has caused an alarming rise to self proclaimed introverts as people no longer need to make physical interactions before they can socialize.
From the direction this current society is rapidly evolving to, it would seem like online friendships are gruesomely making physical interactions obsolete. However due to some personal experiences, I believe bonds created through face to face relations will always be stronger and even last longer than its social media counterpart.
During the COVID 19 pandemic period when the entire world was in total shut down so people predominantly interacted through their smart gadgets, I got super close with a girl named Mercy. She was literally my first real female friend as I never believed the two genders can ever be just plutonic friends. We met via Facebook and started talking after I defended her from online trolls. Mercy was struggling with an identity crisis and the fact that she was constantly having issues with her boyfriend made very vulnerable to her surroundings so I guess that was one of the reasons we hit it off instantly as I too was also a hot mess. We talked for hours daily even though we both living in completely different states, played online games together and even gave each other advices when the need arose. At that phase of my life, Mercy was the most important person in my life right after my family members of course.
Then all of a sudden she became distant after over eight months of bonding. Apparently a new family moved into the apartment behind her house and she instantly became friends with the girl door. Her schedule became super tight and our friendship gradually faded into just Heys and Hellos until we barely even talked at all. I tried as much as I could to revive what was left of our friendship but all my efforts were futile so I gave up on everything. My friendship with Mercy taught me a valuable lesson which I still hold dear till this very day: "Never take a Social Media friendship seriously as it always has an expiration date".
What if scenarios keep running through my mind as I believed if it had been a physical friendship, chances of it surviving would be at an all time high. Till this day I don't even indulge in this practice anymore especially if the other person is not in my vicinity. Even with the increased surge of Internet friends, nothing beats a face to face time where you can see the other person's face, feel their touch and properly convey emotions....... In a digital world, the physical becomes a luxury.
Thank you
