No friends!?!?

Of course not!!

No matter who you are you can always have friends. Some friends are real people in the real world, some friends are imaginary, some are virtual and some are online friends. No matter what type of friend they are you can still call them a friend.

Communicating with your friends and family is now more easy the ever. Mobile phones, video phones, online video chat, msn messenger chat are just some of the ways that we may choose to communicate with people we know. Depending on the type of person you are you might prefer one over the other for example. I tend to use msn messenger online chat much more when communicating with family. When you don’t want to talk you can ignore them! (Sorry mum). It’s quite convenient I think. On the other hand, when talking or chatting with friends I prefer to use my phone a lot more. Having a real conversion using voice means much more to me than just typing all the time and sometimes I can’t be bothered typing either.

My thoughts about a few questions.

1. Do you have friends whom you only know from the internet and have never met in person?

Of course I have but it is a rare case. They are usually friends of friends that were introduced to me through an online social network. For me, these types of friends are people that I’d love to meet but just never have the chance to. We have the same sort of conversations that my real friends and I do. The only difference is that there is no deep connection or strong bond that I have with real friends. You could say it’s more of a light friendship or even acquaintanceship.

2. How long have you been using these communication technologies?
I’ve been using communication technologies since as early as I can remember. The analogue phone for instance, and those old chunky mobile phones that are heavier than a brick.

3. What influenced you to start using these particular technologies?
More than what influenced me; it was a change in society that got me to use these technologies. It just becomes second nature to use them just because everyone else does.

4. Is privacy an issue for you when using new technologies? (How do you deal with issues around privacy?)
I think privacy is a big issue with msn messenger and other chat where you can save conversations and exploit people with them. No so much with mobiles phones but you really need to watch what you say when you chat. How do i deal with them? I try to be cautious of what I do online. You never know who is on the other end too!! The internet can be even scarier than real life.