And so I was asked a question

There are almost seven billion people on Earth (and pages of Google suppositions re: how many of those are met in an average lifetime.) In its ongoing growth, technology offers steady and innumerable opportunities for our generation to 'make friends.' That being said; do you feel a large audience/network online can detract from interpersonal communication? Does social networking strengthen the links between individuals and societies - or is it potentially corrosive? (Oh the irony of my e-query.)

The only thing corrosive about this is the acid building up in my stomach as a result of the pent-up stress my body has been dealing with due to the long amount of time it took me to answer.

Krystin, 

As with any forwrd change in interpersonal communication, there will always be Luddites (as, at least in my mind, the only positive changes are a result of increased personal affluence which only seems obtainable via increased technology) and naysayers who hold true the puritanical notion that what once was was heavily better.

Today, I believe we more or less call them hipsters.

Before the internet, we talked on the phone- those where the good old days: when you actually had to hear someone’s voice. Before the phone, we wrote letters- those where the good old days: when you actually had to sit down and put effort into what you wanted to say. Before letters, we actually had to go to the person and tell them what you wanted to say- those where the good old days… I think you get my point.

What I’m saying is that the concept of worthwhile relations seems to be fluid and the idea of genuineness isn’t necessarily concrete. When two people share enough to establish a healthy connection between themselves and that connection grows, there’s your friendship. Maybe it’s not as corporeal as things used to be- maybe we are venturing towards a society where humans live as gaseous states in hyperbolic chambers- but I think the satisfaction that can be achieved via emotional or intellectual solidarity will still strongly exist and will still elicit the same feelings that is always had. 

I hope that helps you out.

With dearest regards,

Blake