Few years ago, I had written about therapeutic anonymity provided by internet. During the initial days of internet, chat-rooms and blogs were very popular and were a medium of strangers to congregate and share often very personal and private topics. People used alias to discuss and rarely shared pictures and protected their identity.
These days’ people use social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) allowing you to interact with 1000+ connections simultaneously. Yet do these connections actually mean that they are connected?
This is in spite of the fact that most people share more online then they do with their real life friends. Some people are so verbose online that they leave very little to imagination. The archives of photos, real time tweets and personal details can enable anybody to pin point your location, what you are doing and whom you are meeting with scaring precision. Infact there are certain companies/applications that specializes in creating a psychological profile of the person based on his/her posts, likes and shares.
Hence the question: How well do you really know a person who has been your social media (only) friend for years? Is online an extension of self or a projection of self? (In other words is your online life and broadcasted posts hinting a life that you ‘desire’ to live or what you ‘actually’ live? Do we have a same connect/bonding online that we have by spending 5 min with another soul in person/over phone? Is the virtual world & Social media solution to basic human problem that although they want intimacy, they don’t want to walk to a neighbor and say ‘Hi!’?
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