06:38:00
	- Wow, it's almost morning already. I didn't even notice.
Lately, the dynamics of purely internet-borne social links have been on my mind.
I have been in this one internet chat with the exact same people for something
like 13 years. This one guy went into an emotional rant about how important we
were to him, and the whole time I was just thinking, "what is this madman going
on about?" Is this weird? To not feel anything in particular towards a group of
people you've been around for so long? Maybe it isn't normal, but I find it
quite tough to really care or connect deeply over the internet.
	You share interests. You have discussions. But you aren't emotionally
affected or get anything out of it on a personal level. Maybe that's just me.
Probably that's just me. My brain isn't quite right in some places. I wouldn't
be so callous as to suggest that a relationship is less valuable just because
it's on the internet - I mean, you can converse just as well, there's no magic
spell that makes the words you say to someone face-to-face more meaningful than
if you're writing to them through text. In fact, you might be able to make an
argument that non-instant text communication is more meaningful.

	It's a new thing, I suppose. A barely few-decades old method of human
community, so there's bound to be a few kinks here and there. I really wonder
how it will evolve.
Someone else once made an analogy that has stuck with me: around the industrial
revolution, mortality spiked and average lifespan dipped for a period, even
though amazing new technologies were sprouting and 'quality-of-life' was
ostensibly going up.  Why was that? Because nobody knew how to deal with all the
amazing new things.  There was a ton of worker deaths, and people needed to
adapt; adapt they did, eventually.
	And so, supposedly, this is what we're going through in this age of
information. People will adapt, we always do. But until then, there's a few
bumps in the road. That's what I'd like to believe.

I may be an optimist.