Facebook: Old and dear friends

The other day I opened facebook. Lately I find myself opening facebook even before my e-mail. On that day I can not remember which I opened first. What I did notice that in my Facebook inbox was a note from someone I had not heard from in almost 8 years, perhaps longer.

The note put a smile on my face and I moved the cursor to open it. The note was much less pleasant than seeing the name and face of an old friend. This person had found me after all these years through one of the few applications that allow this level of connection; facebook. They had used this tool to tell me that a mutual friend had died. This friend had been long troubled. Never seeming to find the support and connection with others that he desperately needed. I found this to be an odd paradox. Here we live in the most connected time in our history. We are able to chat, share and meet people most anywhere and anytime. We can have single purpose friends and carry on deep relationships just by tapping away at our keyboard. On one level none of us ever needs to be alone. And yet, with all this virtual connection we are above all physical beings. We need that level of connection that we can only get from the close proximity of another. I recently heard that as much as 90% of our communication is body language. If this is true then we can type away at our keybords all day long and still never be fully satisfied since what we miss is the unwritten message between two people. The quick unexpected smile and raise of an eyebrow can not be really represented in an emoticon.