“ Now we’re just broadcasting our stream of consciousness, live from Central Park, to all 500 of our friends at once, hoping that someone, anyone, will confirm our existence by answering back. We haven’t just stopped talking to our friends as individuals, at such moments, we have stopped thinking of them as individuals. We have turned them into an indiscriminate mass, a kind of audience or faceless public. We address ourselves not to a circle, but to a cloud.”
William Deresiewicz - Faux Friends
Articles like this tear me in two. On the one hand, I agree with the sentiment entirely. Friendships are a lot like books, the more of them you read, the less you’re likely to become truly intimate with any of them.
Though, maybe it doesn’t matter. Is it possible that a wider reaching affability and acquaintanceship, a more–ahem–global village, could be beneficial? Not just on a personal, but on a societal level as well. The phrase ‘safety in numbers’ must exist for a reason.
