The problem with the “post these sentences” memes is: how do people know you are answering the meme in the negative, vs. just ignoring it. There’s a meme going around (most recently seen from wordweaverlynn on my “Friends of Friends” list, but seen numerous times elsewhere) that says “If there is at least one person in your life whom you consider a close friend, and whom you would not have met without the Internet, post this sentence in your journal.” The original variation I saw of this was specifically tied to SO/Spouse.
I can’t do it.
First, with respect to my spouse, we met long before Internet access was common. Our first meeting was back in 1980, when she was married to her first husband, and running the Regional Scholastic Programming Contest at CSUN, and I was on the UCLA team. The relationship didn’t blossom until a couple of years later, when that marriage was failing and she was taking courses at UCLA Extension. So, you can say we met because of ACM, you can say we met because of computers, but not the Internet.
As for other close friends: we may have met some because of computers, but again, none we would not have met without the Internet. Perhaps that will happen in the future, but right now it is not the case.
I wonder if this is a generational thing. Although I’ve been on the Internet since the late 1980s, even before it was the Internet, I was not in communities that fostered close friendships. Acquaintanceships perhaps, but not friendships. I think for true friendships you need to have an association in real life.
So, there you have it.
