I have been setting up a few accounts on the web lately. I have a relative that works for myspace and even though I haven't been very fond of it from a philosophical sense I decided to open an account. My wife also has friends on facebook so I opened a facebook account too. What has always struck me about these social networking sites is that they seem so much like a shopping market (or more accurately, an online catalog) of friends. It seemed to me that shopping for friends based on a classified ad they placed on myspace was deeply shallow. I think it actually goes beyond that. We have an innate, and instinctual desire for community. So much of what we want in our lives is a sense of belonging. When we are young, we hope and desire for a friend. Most of us remember the days of "who's your best friend" and the social drama of our youngest years and the desire for friends. I even remember as young as 2nd grade wanting to have a 'girlfriend.' These were not just silly childish behaviors, but our yearning for connection to community. I was just looking at my wife's facebook page and underneath her Status (married, thank you!) it says looking for: friendship. Mine says the same thing. I guess in a way it could be interpreted as sad, but really I guess it's not. We are all looking for friendship. We desire community. We want connections to people. In former times we had this community, because we lived, worked, learned, married, raised families and died largely in place. Now, there has always been movement of people. The 1860's through 1890's saw many families and communities moving westward. Most of these families had only recently left Europe, but in the 400 years before the 1700's you had seen families living within 100 miles of where they were born. Although there have always been the pioneers, the explorers and the settlers of new lands, our basic human desire is for connection to community. This community is moving online and can be fantastic.
I logged on and suddenly dozens of my fellow students from Snake River High where I grew up were there for me to reconnect too. I could immediately see the appeal of being able to reconnect with a community that a person had lost contact with.
Aren't most of us looking for friendship?
Check out what I'm looking for on:
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