Are They Really Your ‘Friends?’

Are online friends real?

Is online community real?

Yes.

Los addressed this issue yesterday in a post called, “Meet My Fake Friends.” The post was great, but the comments were the real meat (Sorry Los!) of the article. These grabbed my attention:

“Some of my blog friends have been so supportive and encouraging, and my faith has grown as a result of some of these friendships.

I’m grateful for this avenue of making friendships….”

“i am in like-love with my online relationships. i have learned more about myself and about God and about life from the vast variety of people i would have never, ever met if it hadn’t been for the internet. you and your family are just one of them. the relationships are real and they truly mean something to me.”

“bro… this all started for me back in the early 90’s when a kid in my youth group asked my permission to give an online friend of hers my IM screen name ’cause she didn’t know how to help her deal with some relationship stuff she was going through. i’ve never met this kid face to face, but 13 years later we still stay in touch (and she recently married a great Christian guy, so mission finally accomplished!). it’s been amazing thru the years from IMing, to myspace and facebook and now blogging the awesome relationships i’ve built with people i’d never otherwise “met.” and now thru folks like mark lee and jon from “stuff christians like” (both of whom i do not know personally either, but read them regularly) i’ve been keeping up with your exploits. small world and getting smaller. btw, looks like your sitemeter will be turning over 1 million pretty soon. go los!”

“As an introvert, this trend in online community is great. I take the opportunity to share things on my blog or with twitter friends that I likely would not face-to-face. I’m not being fake with people; it’s just not my preference to be extremely vocal with a crowd of people. I am able to think through what I want to say beforehand and word it in the way that conveys my thoughts and feelings most accurately – something that is of value to those who are not verbal processors. Rather than seeing it as inauthentic, the online community just provides opportunity to develop relationship and get to know a particular angle of a person that may have not been seen previously.”

This comment was pure gold:

“Very interesting thoughts. I’m one of the few in my circle of “real-world” friends that really gets into the bits and bytes of web 2.0 communities. Most just don’t really get it.

My 15 year old daughter however, doesn’t know any other world. I don’t think she makes much distinction between an online and real-world community – it’s all the same thing.”

Denying that the Earth orbits the Sun doesn’t change reality. Denying the existence of the online community (better: communities) doesn’t change the fact that it exists.

Here is the kicker – If you know the online community exists, how are you going to live Matthew 28:19-20 and breathe Philippians 2:1-11 online?

How do we show Christ without innoculating the online world against the Gospel?

Are you doing it? If so, how?