The Age of Spritual Machines (DotCom)

Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and even Google, they all make the world just a little bit smaller. People you probably would never have known in your life could end up being your best friend. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still, the Internet has become an emotional bridge between strangers. Everyday people meet their boyfriends or girlfriends randomly online. They get in contact with a long lost kindergarten friend. They see the picture of some pretty girl in an album on the profile of a friend of a friend and they're automatically in love. No really, I've seen that one happen.

I have this second cousin that I haven't seen in YEARS and whom I have probably never had a real conversation with because she is a lot older than me and I am a lot more immature than my age permits me to be. But then I randomly meet her online, start reading her blog, and suddenly I know more about her than I ever did before.

I have this friend on Facebook. This girl I never met, only emailed back and forth and chatted with a couple of times for AIESEC-related purposes. Now, she's my friend on Facebook, and I know what she looks like so well that I'd probably be able to spot her in a crowd. I know her activities, interests, favorite music, favorite TV shows, favorite movies, favorite books and favorite quotes. I even know that "Soukaina Chlyah is going to Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday!"

I wonder if she'll ever Google her name and find out that I wrote about her in my blog. Because that just happened to me. I'll write Heba Zaghloul right here so that if anyone else ever tries to Google me, they'll get directed to this page. Then they'll get to read all about me. It's every stalkers paradise.