Real life is harder. Hal Niedzviecki has 700 Facebook friends he tells us in "Facebook in a Crowd" (New York Times Magazine, October 26, 2008). So, when he planned a get together and sent an invitation to all 700, he figured at a few would show up.
Only one other person came to the bar.
"Was I really that big of a loser?" he asks himself.
"Or was it that no one wants to get together in real life anymore? It wasn’t Facebook’s fault; all those digital pals were better than nothing. For chipping away at past friendships and blocking honest new efforts, you really have to blame the entire modern world. People want to hang out with you, I assured myself. They just don’t have the time."
I think we transfer the ease of sitting at home on our computers into an equal simplicity when it comes to real life. And that's just not the case. Technology only revolutionizes some things. Having a blog won't make you a writer "just like that." These things take time. Would Hal have had a better experience if he had done a bit more research, and focused his event around another reason to get together, other than just to meet each other?
"The Internet has allowed an enormous amount of fake networking to take place," said Seth Godin in a forum that you click here to watch online.
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