I am reminded of how important social connections are in the lifestyles we are leading as these connections translates naturally into dollars and cents. The social media which we are consuming in this technological era become a new necessity in our quest for new connections.

When I was reviewing the number of friends which I had made in my freshman and sophomore years in the university, reality hit me really hard. I could recall Weiliang asking me a casual question along this line, “How many friends have you made?” The question came to me as though it came from a supercilious boss from your workplace examining your annual appraisal and lampooning at the pissant results you had had over the years.

So, when the offer came from Weiliang to stay in hall, I was immensely attracted to it, so much so that I felt opportunity emanating from him.

True enough, friend counts from Facebook and follower counts from twitter clearly increase as the days went by, and these figures represent how well-connected you are to the rest of the world. When a particular social medium like Facebook emerged, it became the solution and privilege to many. A solution to rekindle long lost friends and a privilege to know more about others whom you never thought you will ever speak to. And of course for the fun, just to add to the existing resume of friends.

The word Friends began to degrade in its meaning like a candle in the wind, and I could feel the breeze picking up. I’ve sought to remove connections (I can’t bear to use the words friends here) with people I hardly speak to, only to find such connection requests returning. Problem was, when I saw these people face-to-face, there wasn’t a slight inclination for any of us to start a decent conversation; how on earth these people could even be considered as friends?

Friends today no longer require you to know them at a personal level, rather, we become friends instantly right at a mutual click of the mouse button.

I hid my birthday from the profile two weeks before the actual event to prevent them from showing up on friends’ birthday reminders, just for a short experiment. This year, the greetings that derived from Facebook pales in comparison to the year before. And it begins to illustrate two things — that friends become just numbers to you to admire, and a social benchmark you’ve created on the Internet. Also, the convenience of digital reminders ultimately serve to dehumanize us, enabling us to keep important dates like these off our minds.

On a happier note, I observed that those who remembered to sent their well-wishes in spite of missing digital reminders were those who you should really cared for.

The hundreds and thousands are insignificant, just the handful ones will do.