From one screen to another


[Image source](https://nuvomagazine.com/daily-edit/what-kind-of-digital-friend-are-you)

Having to write about a “friend” or the experience of making a friend, at an age where you’re mostly losing friends and acquaintances. As we become more anti-social day by day. It surely does sound like a difficult task, especially in this locked up world we’re living in right now. But do we actually have to view it as a task? Are our social skills really deteriorating? Have we actually lost our “ways” and our “touch” as human beings?

Making a friend was never an issue for me, at least in my younger days. I believe I still have it in me. I just don’t reach out as much, I guess. I was always the guy in middle, the one who would get to hangout with different types of people and age groups. I would fit right in, quite effortlessly.

But the world is a different place now. It’s nothing like what it used to be back then, even if you consider looking back just by a few years. A time when we were actually present in the moment, in one place, face to face. Things felt so natural back then, especially friendship. There were no structures, mental barriers or different platforms. No friend requests to send, non to accept, no follow button and non to follow back. No messaging apps, no posts and feeds to comment on in order to just strike up a conversation.

Our school days or student life for example. You would just be put in a large group of human beings. Where you would sit around awkwardly, probably all alone for the first few days. Taking that time to scout out the whole place. Especially the physical objects who quite *surprisingly* look just like you, a pair of eyes, ears, arms and legs, whad’ya know? Yet, we are still scared sometimes, scared to approach our kind.

Soon enough though, you add it all up, the info you’ve gathered and start focusing on that one subsection of people who look interesting and feel just right. A group in which you see yourself maybe, fitting right in, just like the missing piece of the puzzle. A group of people who probably share the same vibes and are usually a mix of your type of *crazy*. In the end, it’s either you who finds them or them finding you, truly innate. It all felt natural in a way, just like it should be. Being physically present in the moment, living and working together, always being there through the good and the bad. I believe we function better that way, united as one.

Nowadays though, “friendship” works quite differently. And I believe it all started over a decade or two ago, after the introduction of social media, the internet even. As we began to adopt a “digital” lifestyle, slowly distancing ourselves from the real world, its inhabitants and its olden ways. Now I’m not saying it is a bad thing or a wrong path that we’ve taken. If anything, I say it has more ups rather than downs. But one thing is for sure, this antisocial lifestyle of ours is slowly stripping us away from our basic and necessary need of physical touch and presence.

As humans, we’re simply not meant to live this way, divided from one another. Being shy or scared to approach our own kind. I believe we need to maintain balance, a balance of both the social and the anti-social.

Alas, it seems that many of us have have already taken our pick, out of which probably the majority have taken the anti-social approach. For some it has been this way for quite a while now. And I believe that is why we find making friends and socializing nowadays a bit difficult, whether it be online or in real life. Simply because we’re still adapting to this bizarre new way of life. We’re stuck, hanging in the middle and dangling side to side. While still carrying within us some hints, of our older and much natural ways of living and communicating. The need for physical contact still remains inside of us, yet many are “touch starved”.

But, it’s not like you can only have “real friends” in the “real world” by only choosing to go out and meeting people. I truly believe we do have some “internet friends” who we consider nothing less than family and love immeasurably. I believe it is a friendship, a relationship which is just as genuine and important. I say it’s actually easier making friends online, in a way. But like I’ve said earlier, there’s a structure present, steps and mental barriers involved, which we ourselves sometimes tend to create. Things that you usually don’t have to deal with in the real world. We're more present in the real world experieince, present in the moemnt.

Back to the “internet friends” of ours, the ones we truly care about, a bunch of people with whom we have a genuine connection. Even though it might be that you’ve never even met a lot of these people in real life, yet you would surely trust some of these people blindly if ever needed.

Now, when it comes to me and my measly 3 months here on Hive/PeakD, then I surely can say that I’ve made some “friends”, quite the handful. And probably WAY faster than I expected. There are surely a few users whom I follow and absolutely love to conversate with every other day in the comment section. I certainly can say that a friendly vibe is present between me and many of the active users here on the blockchain, a friendly relationship we can call it for now.

I believe it is indeed too early to give the "relationship" a name, a tag. Yet, with time we surely will get there, whatever has to happen will happen naturally. It will be an effortless process, it has to be. Because, whether it be love or friendship, these are the two relationships that can’t be forced. Even if you do succeed with all the force you have, the relationship won’t last and even if it does, then you will simply be living a lie.