Internet Communication

by Eden

Last spring my family and I took a trip to Thailand. It took us months to prepare and I spent hours reading books and articles on the people, food, and geography. My head was filled with visions of what I was sure it was going to be like. I felt like I was swimming in the oceans and exploring the jungles weeks before I had even stepped foot on the plane. Later on I came to realize that in order for me to envision it as clearly as I did, my mind had to fill in many blanks that the books had not. When we did arrive, I found that most of the images I had come up with, though very creative, were quite inaccurate. I think that in a sense, communication over the internet can be very much the same.

When the only connection between two people ends up being typewritten words, they tend to resort to their imaginations to fill the blanks of their internet conversations. Their relationship, therefore, becomes that much less personal. According to an English proverb, “Eyes are the windows to the soul.” And whether or not that is the truth, I think it poses the question: does face to face communication differ from email, instant messaging or “MySpacing”?

One thing I investigated was the differences of my internet relationships with people I have extensive history with and people I have not known for as long. Looking at my email conversations from the last week, I received five emails from church friends, eight from school-mates, one from one of my parent’s old friends, and five spam.

As I read through the emails from the kids at my church (who I only see once a week), I noticed that the majority said something like, “Hey what’s up?” or, “are you going to be at youth group on Sunday?” While the ones from my close friends at school were much more lengthy messages complete with inside jokes and subtle sarcasm.

So, whether I am talking to my friend of five years or someone I met just a week ago, the fact remains that the way you interact with someone on the internet depends on how long you have known them.