Uno: Fully Articulated "We are created from music, photography, literature and the almighty source code."

On Friendships Virtual to Real

Having my best friend, Dragan, stay with us at home will easily be one of the fondest memories of this lifetime. Dragan and I have spent hours getting to know each other in the chatrooms, but it is only when he came to the Philippines from the UK that we’ve finally gotten to know each other well. There really is world of difference between an online chat and a real conversation. I think there are not enough emoticons to convey the complexities of feeling or mood – little, powerful things like gestures or innuendoes or things-left-unsaid can change a story, but are so haphazardly lost in the limits of the keyboard. The smile emoticon, for example, makes everyone’s smile standard. A smile is unique to every person. There is a Dragan kind of smile, and an Uno kind of smile, and varying degrees of smiles than no X or D or : or ) put together could ever properly express. And what about the small nuances like scent or texture or sound or warmth that enriches the experience? Is it ever possible to put such details down into text and emoticons? I think if there is one thing technology cannot replicate, it is life, and each unique moment that creates it. Here and now, with this particular breeze playing on the curtains, this momentary smell of coffee, the unrepeatable echo of laughter from friends close by is just too profound to be decoded into binary symbols. So I am thankful that Dragan and I were given the chance to be more than virtual friends. The internet brings us together, that is true, but it’s always the old-fashioned friendships that bring us closer.