What “Friend” Means in the Era of Social Media

Stolen right from the pages of Star Trek lore, physicists in Texas are working on a way to make physical objects invisible by bending light waves.

Despite the similarity to the Romulan Bird of Prey cloaking technology from the 1960’s television show Star Trek, which hid these enemy ships from the Enterprise crew during battle, we’ve all had access to our own personal cloaking device.

Many instant messaging programs allow you to be cloaked, so you can see your friends online, but they can’t see you.

In Microsoft’s Skype, you can change your status to “Invisible” which allows you to see any of your contacts online, while maintaining your appearance as “Offline” – in effect, hidden from view, or cloaked.

This begs the question – why would you hide from your friends?

Perhaps the word “friend” has changed thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and all the other social media sites.

It isn’t uncommon to have a few hundred, or even a few thousand “friends” following your every post, tweet and hangout.

Used to be, you’d only really call someone a “friend” if you actually liked spending time with someone in the here and now, in the real world.

These days, people “friend” each other on Facebook, and the other social networking sites without really ever knowing who they are in the real world.

Many add complete strangers as friends, and then in turn, you feel compelled – almost guilt-ed – into adding them back – even though you haven’t a clue who they are.

For all you know, you may have added the next Charles Manson, or some other mass murderer as one of your online “friends.”

But don’t worry, the police probably won’t come knocking on your door.

The word “friend” really has changed thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.

What was once used to reference people we actually knew, liked and in many cases loved, is now a loose and ambiguous term for the strangers we occasionally share random thoughts with.

We all have real friends – or at least I hope you do – that you can really depend on in a pinch.

They listen to us vent, share in our joy, and are there when we need a shoulder and a hug.

And some have been lucky to really connect with those online, and may even have some friends from their social networks they can vent, share and hug too.

However, for the most part, having a zillion “friends” online doesn’t mean you have a zillion people you can depend on.

But I suppose it’s nice to believe that.

Thanks to Our Wired World, We’re Running Out of Numbers

As our dependence on mobile technology grows, our need for more numbers to link those magical devices grows too.

SO much so, mobile service providers and governments are coming up with more creative ways to keep us from running out of numbers.

They can do what is taking place in Canada’s largest city today – Toronto gets two new area codes as of today, 437 and 365.

This adds a millions of potential phone combinations to an already crowded see of 10-digit codes.

Or you can go the way of some big service providers, which encourage you to have one number which is shared among all your mobile devices.

Alternatively, you could cut the cord with your phone company, and go completely digital, using a Voice Internet Protocol (VOIP) based service such as Skype.

Maybe that’s why software giant Microsoft recently bought out Skype – which incidentally is giving out free VOIP calling for one month, to current MSN account holders, to lure them over to their newly acquired messaging platform.

All of these solutions work – for now.

What happens when Apple’s iWatch, Samsung’s version of the iWatch and Google Glass from the search engine company hit the streets later this year?

Think about all the numbers most people currently have – home landline, office landline, their personal smartphone and tablet, and then their work smartphone.

Some even have separate lines for their home office and home – both landline and mobile.

We’re swamped in a vast ocean of 10-digit dialing.

I remember years ago, when we only had to dial seven digits to connect over the phone. That’s before we got the addition of ONE – just one area code to our major urban area.

Now here in Toronto, we have six – SIX – area codes, and you’d never not dial the area code plus the number you are dialing.

As technical advances release us from the cables and cords of the past, allowing us to be free, and still be wired to the world, we’ll need to work together to ensure we don’t run out of numbers to connect our wireless devices.

Otherwise, regardless of how wonderful the tech is, it’ll be useless.