{"id":636,"date":"2011-01-26T16:52:09","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T00:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/?p=636"},"modified":"2011-01-26T16:52:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T00:52:09","slug":"friends-online-and-in-real-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/friends-online-and-in-real-life","title":{"rendered":"Friends: online and in real life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"girl<\/p>\n

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NYC girl scouts circa early 1950's – some of whom I am still in contact with<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I recently had a birthday…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Starting over the weekend, many friends on Facebook wished me a happy birthday.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[FYI – Facebook posts the date of your birth if you want it to show.  Twitter and other sites do not.]
\n\t<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of those on Facebook I have met in real life [or IRL as we say] – but most I have never met – or rather – I should say have not yet met.  I am sure I will meet many in the future as we have a lot in common.
\n\t<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some of my non-social media friends wonder why I call my online friends – friends!  Well to me they are friends. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They were there for me in my depression when my pets died and in my joy when I announced that my son was getting married. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They are ardent supporters of my writing and my thoughts about politics and life – and they sometimes enjoy my videos and photographs [and even my knitting projects \"\"]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So – what is a friend?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have friends I see every day, I have friends from years ago that I stay in contact with via phone and visits, and some with whom I am in contact only via email or online.  And of course, my online-only friends.
\n\t<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Is there a difference in these friends?  Yes.  For those from the far ago pasts, and even my not-so-far-ago pasts – we may have different points of view and events on life now – but we once shared a history and that can't be discarded.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Those histories forge a bond of friendship.  And the social media friends? We are creating our own history and forging a different kind of friendship…<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But to me – they are all friends!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Comments? Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NYC girl scouts circa early 1950's – some of whom I am still in contact with I recently had a birthday… Starting over the weekend, many friends on Facebook wished me a happy birthday.  [FYI – Facebook posts the date of your birth if you want it to show.  Twitter and other sites […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[93,90,89,61,91,92,25],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-1950s","tag-birthday","tag-friends","tag-human-interest","tag-irl","tag-real-life","tag-social-media","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.graywolfproductions.com\/graywolfproductions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}