Tweetup and a Blog Award

I met a fellow Tweeter today for lunch. She came all the way from Kansas to meet some scrapbookers that she met on the internet. It got me thinking how small the internet has made the world.Yes, we have beaches in Central Texas.

In the past, your friends were people you met at school, work, church, maybe even sitting in a doctor's waiting room. Certainly we didn't just suddenly have friends from Kansas, Canada, Australia, England or the Netherlands. If you wanted to make such friends, you had to fly to those places or sign up for pen pals and hope that someone replied to your request. You then had to wait weeks for that reply to come.

Last year, a coworker told me about Scrapblog. It was through that site that I made several friends. Then Scrapblog led me to SISTV where I made more friends. Those friends then asked who Twittered which I quickly responded to and thereby received names of people I chatted to more frequently. It was better than waiting for an email. (This reminds me of how we used to say a watched pot never boils, but now we are impatient if we have to wait the two minutes it takes to heat a cup of tea in the microwave - time has definitely become relative. But I digress.)

Now I am not here to sing of the praises of Twitter as there are many people who don't get it, don't want to get it, or get it but don't want to have one more obsession to get involved with. Nevertheless, I do follow certain people on Twitter, and I have been known to update my status from time to time.

Despite my love of most things technology based, I am still what is called a Digital Immigrant. My students would be considered Digital Natives. That leaves me wondering what we call people like my mother who don't even like programming their DVR and insist on using film to take pictures even though there is a perfectly good digital camera sitting in the guest room. Digital Aliens??

Regardless, the ever changing world of technology is upon us, and we need to redefine words such as "friends" and rethink how we make them. I believe there are people I know far more about whom I have met on the internet as opposed to sitting across the aisle from in church every Sunday for the past 10 years.

For these digital friends I say, "Thanks for being my friend."

Now to share a blog award with these wonderful people.

I received this blog award from Sharmaine yesterday.
It came along with this comment:

The Love My Friends Award is given to those bloggers who aspire, inspire and share the most beautiful of human attributes: art, wisdom and friendship. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more.

I don't know if I can do eight, but here it goes.
1. Peggy
2. AVTCoach
3. Roban
4. Chris
5. Eva Helen
6. Michelle
7. MJ
8. Shan

Woo hoo! I did it. These are all blogs I love to follow. Some because of their wonderful words and some because of their artistic talent. And some are just for joy their blogs bring when they come up on my reader. Check them out. Tell them hello. It may lead to a new digital friend.