Can anyone else here honestly say that they don't have a single friend

[Morse Code]

I don't have any friends.

 

[cumulus.james]

I don't have any friends.

Neither do I. That in itself is something that we share as humans.

So just for a moment

Just via this stream of zeros an ones giving an illusion of communication

Neither of us is alone.

That must give hope to the hopeless?

 

[ladyforsaken]

I don't have any friends.

Neither do I. That in itself is something that we share as humans.

So just for a moment

Just via this stream of zeros an ones giving an illusion of communication

Neither of us is alone.

That must give hope to the hopeless?

I would hope so.

 

[jd7]

Neither do I. That in itself is something that we share as humans.

So just for a moment

Just via this stream of zeros an ones giving an illusion of communication

Neither of us is alone.

That must give hope to the hopeless?

I think the zeros and ones are communication and not an illusion. Sometimes, the communication that takes place in this binary realm is far more real than anything we've ever broached with the people in our 3d worlds.

 

[cumulus.james]

Neither do I. That in itself is something that we share as humans.

So just for a moment

Just via this stream of zeros an ones giving an illusion of communication

Neither of us is alone.

That must give hope to the hopeless?

I think the zeros and ones are communication and not an illusion. Sometimes, the communication that takes place in this binary realm is far more real than anything we've ever broached with the people in our 3d worlds.

The world may not be 3d, that may be an illusion. Susskinds holographic multiverse and all that.

Bhor said to Einstein "if nobody looks at the moon is the moon still there?"

Cumulus sits in his flat and says to himself "if nobody is looking at me am I still here?"

 

[jd7]

and says to himself "if nobody is looking at me am I still here?"

Who's asking?

 

[cumulus.james]

and says to himself "if nobody is looking at me am I still here?"

Who's asking?

Don't go getting into all that! We are likely to reach the conclusion I really don't exist.

 

[jd7]

Cheer up, James...

It's Christmas...

And despite your drinking and self-loathing, you've somehow managed to maintain a decent intellect and sense of humor (something most are born without, I swear)...

and says to himself "if nobody is looking at me am I still here?"

Who's asking?

Don't go getting into all that! We are likely to reach the conclusion I really don't exist.

 

[cumulus.james]

Cheer up, James...

It's Christmas...

And despite your drinking and self-loathing, you've somehow managed to maintain a decent intellect and sense of humor (something most are born without, I swear)...

Not sure about that.

I could be a Turing machine or whatever it's called for all I know.

Indeed, as might you be.

 

[jd7]

I could be a Turing machine or whatever it's called for all I know.

Indeed, as might you be.

I often wonder if I'm a Nexus-6

 

[cumulus.james]

I could be a Turing machine or whatever it's called for all I know.

Indeed, as might you be.

I often wonder if I'm a Nexus-6

The smartphone or something from Star Trek

 

[mickey]

I can honestly say that I don't have a single friend. Not one.

I do have my father and brother, tho, so I'm not completely alone on earth.

 

[cumulus.james]

I don't have anyone. All day. Every day alone.

 

[sothatwasmylife]

I could be a Turing machine or whatever it's called for all I know.

Indeed, as might you be.

I often wonder if I'm a Nexus-6

The smartphone or something from Star Trek

Time for an upgrade I've got a nexus 7

 

[TheRealCallie]

I could be a Turing machine or whatever it's called for all I know.

Indeed, as might you be.

I often wonder if I'm a Nexus-6

The smartphone or something from Star Trek

Time for an upgrade I've got a nexus 7

Hell, I'm still running Gingerbread on my Android. But, I can't find a man to buy me a new phone

lol, just kidding. I don't care what my phone is as long as I have a qwerty keyboard to send texts from.

 

[sothatwasmylife]

Nexus 7 is pretty nice...high definition screen and really good price...

 

[vng2015]

...online or otherwise? I can't even remember the last time I actually "hung out" with a friend. Can you...???

Online friends do not count. Offline I have no friends -- I used to have people with whom I talked rarely, but not friends.

 

[cumulus.james]

...online or otherwise? I can't even remember the last time I actually "hung out" with a friend. Can you...???

Online friends do not count. Offline I have no friends -- I used to have people with whom I talked rarely, but not friends.

There was an early form of social networking that got lost in the mix, it was such a thing where online friends did translate to real life friends. That was the only reason I was able to make friends in my early to mid 20's. It was this:

Gay guys like cruising for ***. Obviously as soon as the internet started to take off, gay guys adopted and adapted it. Cruising went online. But if you were to meet for ***, then you had to be able to locate someone within geographical reach, so this was built into the structure of such websites. Enter gay.com in 1998 I think it was. Here in the UK, a couple of entrepreneurs wanted a piece of the action, enter gaydar in 2000. What was unique about gaydar is not only did it introduce chat rooms, but local chat rooms which appealed to a community which already had a presence in the real world. For example my local room was UK Essex Chat. We had 1 massive gay club night on a sunday, then a full time gay bar also opened.

All these things came together such that the people on the chat room were the people you could potentially get to know in real life. It became addictive, with many of us spending whole evenings on there into the early hours chatting. Others would just pop in from time to time. Obviously one would utilize this for carnal means, but even someone like me could make friends. And I did. And I was able to go clubbing and find guys to actually date as opposed to just fcuk. Those were good times.

That situation appears to have gone unnoticed by most. It was a very clear example of how the internet could bring people together. With the rise of the rather closed and snooty fakebook, and now the apps, the internet appears to these eyes to be driving people apart rather than bringing them together.

How do we change that?

 

[Tiina63]

I think that online friend do count. I have a couple of online friends who I have had for some years and although it is frustrating not being able to meet at weekends etc (we live in different countries), they are still good friends and I wouldn't want to be without them.

 

[TheRealCallie]

I think that online friend do count. I have a couple of online friends who I have had for some years and although it is frustrating not being able to meet at weekends etc (we live in different countries), they are still good friends and I wouldn't want to be without them.

Online friends DEFINITELY count. I have many. Hell, most of my friends are online, but you know what, many of them have helped me more than any of the friends I have offline.