Question

For the first time in history, an individual can be extremely social while remaining physically "isolated" from others. Do you spend much time communicating with others on-line? Do you know all of your on-line friends...err...personally? Like in protoplasmic form? Do you think that this has an impact on you and your idea of what a "friend" is? How does your "on-line" persona differ from your "real life" self? Discuss any differences that you perceive between your online and real self... If you don't spend any time online, tell me how you THINK this might have an impact on individuals.

Answer 1

The fact that digitalization ad the new apps that connect people globally has made a lot of difference in the manner in which they look at friendships today. In fact, many researches have been conducted around the same. The findings have revealed the same. A major factor in determining the criteria of friendship is the idea if being 'non-judgemental'. Most people want that their friendships should be governed by underlying trust and a strong foundation. Most people are on a lookout for cathartic experience when it comes to true friendships. In order to find the same, they search for this experience in the virtual space. One reason could be that a person who is away and who doesn't know one personally is less likely to judge you on the flaws since it's a dark and unknown space altogether. The 'real self' that way is hidden under the 'persona' or the mask that Jung had spoken of. Most people nowadays would like to portray them as nearer to their 'ideal self', something that they peobably want to become in order to seem socially desirable. This is why friendships nowadays are impacted since they are looked at from a different light. This ay have its own set of advantages as well as disadvantages. In fact, to me also it seems that most of the social media posts that I upload are centred around my happiness, whereas this is not a universal experience. I may not be experiencing that mood or affect all the time, but still that is how most people would like to be perceived. Therefore, the real and online self also differs in that sense.