As for the idea that online relations are somehow less real, I understand the sentiment – I would much prefer interacting with my parents and friends in person, honestly. But I remember when online interaction wasn’t so easy – living in Costa Rica on my own, where my main line of communication back home was email or a $200 or more phone call for roughly 15 minutes. While I had wonderful relationships in Costa Rica and still maintain them, I am eternally grateful that programs like Skype and FaceTime exist so that I can interact with friends and family for longer without paying and actually get to use video. For someone who is often away from any one of my ‘homes’ for one reason or another, online capabilities have drastically changed my ability to keep in touch and are as real as I can possibly get without flying back and forth all the time.
I think people become concerned because, as you said, it’s the unknown and the media has a tendency to highlight the horror stories. But this is a digital world we live in, and that’s probably not going to change anytime soon. The best plan of action, then, is to educate ourselves and our children as best we can.
I also wonder how much of it has to do with communication. This is a bit of a windy thought path, but look at language and how it changes. Each generation uses language in a new way. We see it most with slang terms, but also with grammar. Point is that language changes, because people (see what I did there?). When language changes, however, it’s usually younger generations who change it and older generations who scoff and grumble at the idea. People become set in the ways of communication that they know, and when someone comes along and uses language in a new way that doesn’t fit that system, people become defensive. But that’s how language has changed over time and will continue to change.
In a way, online communication is very similar. Younger generations are not only coming along and changing the language they use to communicate, they’re also changing the medium through which they do so. This isn’t terribly new, but the speed with which these mediums change has probably increased in recent decades, which is why people are paying more attention to it. But really, it’s just the way things have changed for millennia – younger generations coming along and using the existing system in new ways or creating a new system out of the old. In the end, it’s probably more a fear of change and the unknown than anything else.
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