Wasted Space, Saving Face

The more I use the “new” internet, the more I am amazed at how we as a people, the entire world, are wasting the biggest opportunity in the history of mankind. We have created a tool that allows us to speak to anyone, anywhere in the world. We have even gone so far that we can send videos, pics, or even talk via live video or audio to these same people.

Yet, these mind-boggling tools are being under-used and mistaken for a private chatroom. Few people take the opportunity to expand their horizons on sites like MySpace and Facebook. They don’t see these sites as a way to open communications with a stranger they otherwise would have no chance of meeting. No, these people view their accounts as new ways to annoy their existing friends.

It’s partly this new mentality of “every man is an island”, and it’s also partly that there is so much abuse by spammers, child molesters, stalkers, and hackers that people are reluctant to even give others a shot. I understand that making new friends is tough, but when you aren’t open to the idea of attempting such a feat, the greatest tool ever devised gets wasted.

So many profiles are set to super private. A lot of people have profiles that only show a picture or a scarce amount of information, while some people have elected to have profiles that not only show no picture or information, they can’t be searched for on that site. Again, I understand not wanting to have spammers and such storm your profile, but to eliminate the possibility of finding a really cool online friend from a far away country is just myopic.

I have on my MySpace account friends from all over the world including China, Glasgow, South Africa; and the U.S., like New York, Texas, and Mississippi. Will I ever meet these people in real life? Maybe. But just having the opportunity to talk to someone in a completely different section of this world is great. I love learning someone else’s culture, what they feel about current events, and what it’s like in their neck of the woods.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t also use these tools for our everyday friends, but to exclude the rest of the world is silly. I enjoy sending crazy vids, pics, and wacky comments to the people in my life. It’s not like I can walk up to someone and say “”. Sure, I could print it out and then show it to people but that’s silly.

Don’t even get me started on how difficult it is to get girls to open up online. It’s almost as hard as getting them to talk offline. Because of all the assholes and perverts that continually inundate them with pick-ups lines and sexual innuendo, the rest of us have to go through Fort Knox to get to know a girl. And I don’t mean the girls one tries to date, but even the ones that are “just friends” material. When I see an interesting girl in a group or on a friend’s profile, I preface the hell out of my email because I want them to know I’m not trying to get with them, even if they are half a world away. I just want to have an online friendship with them, trading stories etc. and finding out about someone else’s life.

The flip side of the coin is the people who friend everyone. My god people! Show a little restraint. You don’t need 1000 friends. I blogged about this Thursday, May 25, 2006 entitled “A World Without Tom”, so if you want to check it out, go to my archive.

All this being said, I hope my blog reaches more than just the regular readers and the peeps on my friends list. I hope this becomes a worldwide wake-up call. Don’t throw away the opportunity of a lifetime because of a few bad apples or because you were told not to talk to strangers. If everyone never talked to strangers, no one would ever talk to anyone else and the species would cease to exist unless you started fornicating with your relatives. Be smart about who you talk to and what info you give out. Besides, you can always delete them from your friends list if you find out they are an unsavory character.

Good luck, and good night.