A World Wide Web of Friends

Modern Friendship is a funny thing.  Gone are the days where proximity dictates your social exchanges and who you give your time to. Social media has played a significant role in shifting the tides of social etiquette.   From Tinder to Facebook to almost every dot com, the way we meet, greet and keep people is forever changed.

For as young and hip (blah ha!) as I am—I can be a little old school. I often shop IN stores, I’ve not needed to grow with technological times with job searches and such, and since I met my now husband, then boyfriend in 1995, I missed online dating by a long shot. My online world was mostly Facebook banter between old and current friends…until recently.

It’s like a Match.com fairy tale except it happened on Facebook. I didn’t have to sneak around or leave my husband, either—I made a friend! A good old fashioned friend to be real with!

While FB bantering with (and jabbing) a mutual (and politically opposed) friend, she inquired about me.

“How’s your friend Elease holding up after the election?”

I wasn’t doing so well…

Shortly after her kind inquiry, we became Facebook friends. Step one in our online ho-mance. (He, our original friend, coined the phrase.)

Commenting on posts turned to messaging, messaging turned to texting, texting turned to chatting on the phone (WHO STILL DOES THAT?!). Old school—I mentioned that!

Weeks and months went by and suddenly this someone knew more about me than most people, even though we had never met. She became someone I relied on, and one of my closest friends, from afar.

I met my new friend IRL ( <— hip!) for the first time last week—FINALLY!

I got to give her a hug and chat for hours about everything and to make sure she wasn’t a 400-pound man posing as my new friend. She wasn’t…

Not knowing if my online charm would translate to real life, I made and brought her my signature dish, eggplant parm. I’m all about making a good first impression– it worked, and I can’t wait to get together again!

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I’m grateful for this new friend. She’s a perfect addition to the incredible friendships I’ve built in my life and worked so hard to maintain.

I’m also grateful for our mutual friend, whose nonsense engaged me to tangle— resulting in this wonderful new connection.

The gift, I’ve learned, is that my circle of friends continues to grow—and thanks to the great world wide web, the actual world has become a little smaller. But there’s still room for all of us…

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