Something occurred to me today. I have to admit I had not really thought about it before, which probably says a lot about me as a person (or at least, it will after I explain what on earth I’m on about).
Followers are rarely friends.
It struck me that among the hundreds of people that either follow me, or I follow on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any of the other social networks, I can count those I have really got to know on one hand.
Sometimes it feels like I make all the running when it comes to making friends. I’m not sure how I feel about that. There has been the odd occasion where somebody has read stuff I’ve written or a photo I’ve posted, and sought me out. Amazing friendships have resulted. Those occasions are incredibly rare though.
Perhaps I need to look after those “real” friendships a little more than I do. It’s too easy to get swept up in the internet tide, and carried downstream, gazing wide eyed at the torrent of content coursing past.