Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

The one thing that I have completely agreed with from my own experience is when Mark Zuckerberg talks about getting to know a person through things like facebook or twitter.  I have met a few people through online chats, people from around the country and even out of the country.  Though most people would warn you not to talk to people online, because you don’t know who you’re talking to, I have met some interesting people.  Usually for what most people warn you about, you can tell when a person is a fake and isn’t who they say they are.  And because I have been aware of who is real and who is fake I have made some good friends with people I met online.

Zuckerberg is right, that by reading the repeating nature of people’s statuses in Twitter or Facebook you get a sense of who they are.  You begin to understand what they see as important, and just their daily habits.  Even in a place as personal as Facebook people still feel a sense of anonymity and open themselves up more to others.  That sense of anonymity gives people a chance to let go of their inhibitions and open up to others, for which I have come closer to some friends hundreds of miles away than those next door.