Being real online doesn’t help community, it hampers it

Forums are for creeps. We spend too much time on Facebook. Twitter is inane. It seems that everyone has a different problem with the way that socializing works on the internet, but Adrian Chen questions whether are any of these complaints are valid and if any of our current solutions work. He poses, “What if a social network operated according to a logic as different from computer logic as an underground punk club is from a computer lab?” Chen met his best friend through a messy internet community, and he doubts that a serendipitous friendship like theirs could happen in the sterile halls of Facebook. The internet allows us to connect with people who have the same niche interests as ourselves, but with our newfound obsession with identity on the internet, we’re now stuck with the acquaintances that we made in college and high school. You’re a loser for ending up like Manti Te’o, but then again, who’s really getting any on Bang With Friends?