It rarely surprises us if a RL friend hasn’t contacted us in a week. Sometimes I can even go a month without speaking to some friends. But when an Internet friend (SL, Plurk, Tumblr, Facebook, Omgpop, whatever) goes ‘missing’ for a couple of hours, countless panic buttons are pressed.

Personally, I feel slightly smothered by that fact, especially because I have been worried like that before and it scares me to know that I’d feel that way. I need a whole lot of space. When people come too close or stay for too long, I start to feel uneasy. And to have people worry (hypothetically) that something has happened to me seriously scares me. Maybe I just needed to run an errand, or maybe I had somewhere to go in RL, or maybe I have some friends over? In RL, all these are so integrated into your life that you don’t even have to inform someone just in case they’ll be worried. Besides, most of the time, they’re busying doing their own things and not waiting for you to respond to a message.

But perhaps that is the beauty of the Internet. Because no matter how many miles apart you are, you know you can reach somebody with a simple mouseclick. The immediacy is comforting. It doesn’t matter what the other person is doing, because as long as their name blinks to indicate the online status, you know they’re safe.

(This post has been inspired by several friends. )