Disconnected
Over the last few months I seem to have been edging slowly away from the online community. I wouldn't perhaps describe it as “not trying”, as much as “not caring”. At some point along they way I realised who was making the running in various friendshipswho was putting in the legwork, who was being there, who was making coversation, who was asking after others, and who was wasting his time.
I'm not sure if it's a more general thing, or if I have a very powerful pair of rose tinted goggles on, but I have memories of peoplebuilding onlinecommunities years agonot expecting them to grow up around them, or to have friends handed to them on a plate. You would arrive at MySpace, Yahoo 360, Geocities, LiveJournal, Vox, or wherever, build your virtual home, and then set about finding like minded people to share the quiet moments of the day or evening with.
Somewhere along the way people's expectations of what will be done for them has run amokit has made them lazy, complacent, and often lonely. On the flip-side, the porn industry has exploded into entirely un-anticipated dark corners; with semi naked video chat sites appearing like locusts to sweep up the lonely and the vulnerable.
It's not just the internetit's children too. Where children used to play imaginatively with sticks, those sticks now have to be battery powered, light up, and make light saber noises.
Perhaps I'm joining too many non-existent dots.