Dear {a friend},
You want to have a lot of friends but you don't want to put up too much effort in maintaining the friendship? That seems a bit contradictory at first glance, but having thought about it a bit, i think a virtual friendship is the only way that you could probably pull this off successfully. The thing about a virtual friendship is that its ethereal by nature, and thus can be as real or unreal as you want. It can be extended, expanded or terminated without much thought or difficulty any which way. You don't really know who is on the other end, and you can be anyone you want without really being you. The question then is: if its ethereal, if its "virtual", how can it be real? Is it truly a friendship?
Eyes behind virtual lines
I studied English Lit when i was in uni. I was taught that during the period of Austen and Poe, society's communication relied heavily on the written word. Books, newspapers, letters - that's how people communicated and kept in touch. It was such a prevalent form of communication that even books about books and letters were written. Epostalaries are essentially novels that are written in the form of letters between the main characters. As the reader, we see the story as it is told from letters. That period was 200 years ago. With the Internet, it seems that the strength of the written word has returned.
THAT is the basis of a virtual friendship: the writings between two people, or between a group of people. One wonders whether that's enough to sustain a relationship. In the era of cyberspace, is it now possible to befriend, fall in love with, break up with a person all without physically meeting? The answer to that question seems to be in the positive. Then, the question will be whether that is desirable?
Personally, while writing is a medium that allows to me express myself best, its not necessarily a medium that i prefer. Its just too... predictable? Not sure whether that describes it properly, but verbal communication (either through the phone or face2face) has an element of spontaneity that cannot be duplicated. Of course, the content of something written can be a surprise to the reader, but that's not something that is felt by the writer who has time to choose the words carefully, has time to write things in exactly the meaning that is intended. While it may make no difference to the reader, it certainly makes a difference to the author.
And its also because of this element that written communication can be easily abused. A talented writer can confuse, bemuse and trick a reader unawares. What is written, hidden behind the wall of the Internet, can be a mixture of truths and half-truths or none at all. Deception is possible when there is very little real reason to be honest. Just like everything else on this God-created earth - writing, the Internet - the combination of the two is a double-edged sword. It is what you make of it, nothing more.
