Ginger & Cardamom

I spend a lot of time over the internet, and I have an awesome virtual existence where I have friends. But one drawback I always felt about the virtually existence, the personal touch of being friends only comes after a face to face conversation. The online world can start friendships/relationships for you but it’s highly unlikely that it can take it to the next level.

I have always loved the idea of twitter, but surprisingly I have felt that somehow the 140 characters may be enough to communicate, start a relationship but it drops a lot of thinks as well. Here I produce 5 instances I had online where I feel a bit left out/weird-

1- I have a lot of friends on twitter & blogs as I have already mentioned in my last post here but still I don’t think I am aware when are their birthdays and other trivial details like these which I think friends should know. I can add any all of them on a facebook or Orkut but then simply the essence of a virtual presence is a complete persona but it simply isn’t at one place

2- One of my friends Brainstuck, we actually were having a conversation when something conversation happened where actually my comment would have been unjustified if his age wasn’t close to mine (which I had assumed by default). I actually had to specifically ask him his age before giving comments on the situation. Now friends don’t do that.

3- Then another friend of mine Meera, I actually came in touch with her because of her awesome cartoons which I saw during the election period. Now after reading the cartoon and her take on Indian politics I always assumed somewhere she would be an elderly lady around 40 years of age with a very mature and balanced viewpoint on the Political scenario and obviously an amazing sense of humor. Yesterday when she shared her pic on the twitter, I realized the only thing I have misjudged more was to have thought of Meera as a guy. Well this is her pic and you will have an Idea how wrong I was.

4- I met Nikhil the other day at Costa Coffee after interacting with him on twitter and email a couple of times I always had a perception of him as a mature and serious guy. I was actually jaw dropped when I came to know that he was such a chill & cool guy and had actually recently completed his graduation.

5- A lot of times this happens that my friends are not online, I have telephone numbers of them and I have the inquisitiveness why the hell they are not online. Something wrong, something happening but somehow I never call, because it might be inappropriate.

I don’t if it happens only with me, but I think I sometimes feel a need more than twitter, blogs, orkut to make friends. May be I am skeptical, or may be I will grow with time. So people what do you think, have you also made similar mistakes online, do you feel a need for real connect too?