Life and the Internet.

People talk here, just like in life. You make friends, you get to know others, and there's the occasional asshat that pops in and out. In real life, you can physically see these people. If somebody is having a bad day, is excited, or just really depressed, at least you're there to be there for them. What happens online though? Sign in, get to know people, laugh...joke.. even get pissed off at each other... but what happens after? Day goes by, no word. Two days, nothing.. A week, a month. Eventually people get forgotten about. You can be nicest of nice, or be me. After a week or two, you're eventually forgotten about. Like you were never there. Example: Shinyumi. Great guy. Hard to keep in contact with atm, but a great guy all around. He came back for a few days but in general, been gone almost 2 months, maybe more. Does anybody know what happened to him? We all talked to him, liked him, but now that he's gone, do you ever really think about him? The same goes for anybody. What if I didn't sign on for a month. Nobody would care. but what if I had died, none of you would know. Would anybody care even if somebody did? For the majority, we have these faces. The anonymous part of us that hides who we really are. Even if we show portions to people, a very rare few actually get to see us. Even "great friends" on here don't know each other past maybe Skype or facebook. The long drawn out point I'm trying to say is that at the end of the day, none of us matter to each other. We may act like we care, but no matter who we are, we dont. If we did, we wouldn't have to be here to talk to each other. Life hurts more though. :/ And on that note...

I'd notice if you didn't sign in for a month. You're very active in the forums, and you do contribute to the liveliness of them. For instance, I remember that time where you were gone for a week or so and I was like, man, I want to talk to this guy about how great 'Kodomo no Jikan is but I may never have the chance to'. Myself, I don't really strive to get too intimate with anybody online. I've done it before, and it hurts breaking it off once you reach the inevitable end of the tunnel. People are just more guarded online. There are a lot of people on this site that it would suck to see leave. But that's the internet for you; people can come and go at the drop of a hat.

Hey! I take offense to the asshat comment, good sir.:P Actually, what you say is not true for me. If I take the time to get to know you, I will not just forget you. I know it's easy to take away the human element when there's the anonymity of a computer screen. Do you care about the cashier at the gas station after you part ways? Doubtful. But, if you get to know that cashier you'll tend to want to keep in touch and think about them. Most of the people in our day to day interactions probably aren't all that memorable, that's just a sad fact of society and existence. Like I said, if I take the time to get to know you, I will get attached , miss and think about you.

When I got a ps3 a couple of years ago, I met a couple of people online who I eventually became great friends with, even though its about a group of 20 of us, I have met a couple of them who also happened to live in TX and we now hang out every month or so, I consider them close friends of mine and we all still stay in contact.

I think for the most part everyone here summed it up well: you can always find wonderful people through the internet whether it be this site or another. It all just comes down to how close you become and the effort put in by both parties to maintain the friendship. There are quite a few friends I have online that I constantly keep in touch with even if we don't really talk as much as we might have used to. There's still people back from my old gaia days that I really miss and wish I had some way of contacting because they were some amazing people.

You're speaking my mind Jikoshy! I'm thinking of planning some "reboot" days as I like to call them now, take a few days off the computer. I definitely do believe all this social networking and such can get to you after awhile and the internet itself can be weirdly depressing in a sense. I just find it funny how I grew up liking videogames and the internet, I was the "outcast" and dorky kid who was wrong. Now, look at the world. Find me someone who isn't glued to their phone or discussing utmost personal aspects of their life for the world to see on FB. I can't help but feel angry about it sometimes too and blame these things as to why I might be single and lonely myself, now that I'm more social and would like to interact and reach out more to others... nobody else wants to! But maybe that's just an excuse I'm using. Now I'm mad haha. Too sentimental lately.