This I have often pondered, flesh friends are tangible, you can know that they are real but sometimes will be fake, but net friends, a lot of the time you know they are fake and yet you still treat them as though they are real. What I mean by this is that in the world your friends will tell you stuff and you can sometimes gauge if it is the truth but often it doesn't matter as it is all part of your interactions with them and everything else they do or say with you helps to iron out inconsistencies.
Now net friends are a different story, they could tell you anything and you have to either believe it or not with no basis for comparison, on the net if somebody tells you they are a doctor you go ahead and ask about doctoring to confirm, but you still don't know for certain, you have to take what they say as either convincing enough or not, whereas in real life you could find out the truth by the simplest of deductions, like, ring the hospital they work at, ask their other friends or family, or just get hit by a bus in the vicinity of their hospital when they are supposed to be working and when they come in to stitch you up you will have your confirmation. I know, I know, that first suggestion was a little extreme, I mean who rings anybody anymore anyway... right ; ]
The question I ask is that if you make a friend online and are willing to go to bat for them then you do so solely on the strength of words typed on a screen, their is no emotion to display intent, there is no face to watch or mannerisms to interpret, which all Aspies would be doubly wary of I assume.
Recently I was illuminated as to the program; "Catfish". Catfish tells the stories of people that find out their internet dalliances are not altogether what they seem to be, so why is it that in this tech savvy age we are still more inclined to believe the, usually unverifiable, self promotion of those we encounter online.
52yo male bikie scams money pretending to be a Ukrainian female model of 25, would be an example (not an actual case that I know of)
On down the line to,
"Oh yeah I am in the army, I am a high ranking officer" when in fact they are in the boy scouts and only then because their dad is the leader of that troupe (also not actual case)
The net makes for the perfect breeding ground for lies so why do we believe that anybody is what they claim to be, and why are we so upset when we are duped?
Now net friends are a different story, they could tell you anything and you have to either believe it or not with no basis for comparison, on the net if somebody tells you they are a doctor you go ahead and ask about doctoring to confirm, but you still don't know for certain, you have to take what they say as either convincing enough or not, whereas in real life you could find out the truth by the simplest of deductions, like, ring the hospital they work at, ask their other friends or family, or just get hit by a bus in the vicinity of their hospital when they are supposed to be working and when they come in to stitch you up you will have your confirmation. I know, I know, that first suggestion was a little extreme, I mean who rings anybody anymore anyway... right ; ]
The question I ask is that if you make a friend online and are willing to go to bat for them then you do so solely on the strength of words typed on a screen, their is no emotion to display intent, there is no face to watch or mannerisms to interpret, which all Aspies would be doubly wary of I assume.
Recently I was illuminated as to the program; "Catfish". Catfish tells the stories of people that find out their internet dalliances are not altogether what they seem to be, so why is it that in this tech savvy age we are still more inclined to believe the, usually unverifiable, self promotion of those we encounter online.
52yo male bikie scams money pretending to be a Ukrainian female model of 25, would be an example (not an actual case that I know of)
On down the line to,
"Oh yeah I am in the army, I am a high ranking officer" when in fact they are in the boy scouts and only then because their dad is the leader of that troupe (also not actual case)
The net makes for the perfect breeding ground for lies so why do we believe that anybody is what they claim to be, and why are we so upset when we are duped?
