online

Sometimes I wonder about the number of people sitting in front of their computers, whether it be in their offices, homes, schools, libraries, malls, dorms - wherever. Back in college, most of our time in the dorm would be spent online - chatting on YM, checking our Friendster, Multiply or Blogger accounts. If anything productive ever came of it, I don't think I would ever be able to measure. How do you measure friendships made and lost, that awful nagging feeling that you're being unproductive but you can't help it ("But People.com is just so addicting!"), the kilig from online flirtations, or that unique sense of 'online connectedness'? How do you measure what you become?

Here I am five months after college, and the only thing that hasn't changed is that I still have a computer in front of me for most of the day. It's important to note that it's a computer with constant internet connection - I think there's a HUGE difference between a computer with internet connection and a computer that doesn't. Being online, even if I'm not chatting up anyone on YM, poking someone on Facebook or updating my blog, gives me that strange feeling of being connected with people. Sure, we can say that e-mails and text messaging have indirectly allowed people to alienate themselves from the world, but I think it's also given us a semi-safe way of approaching the world at our own pace. Today we poke once on Facebook, tomorrow we may be poking each other in person. More importantly, it gives us a chance to poke into each other's minds. We think we're entering just another website, but, to put it vividly, we are actually shaking each other's hand - well, in cyberspace.

"Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it in hiding." ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's a strange, interesting world we live in don't you think? I hope you do approach it, whichever way you choose.