That Human Touch

“Tis the human touch in this world that counts,

The touch of your hand and mine,

Which means far more to the fainting heart

Than shelter, bread and wine;

For shelter is gone when the night is o'er,

And bread lasts only a day

But the touch of the hand and the sound of the voice

Sing on in the soul always.”

– Spencer Michael Free

As someone who has always struggled to make new friends, the dawn of the age of social networking had been a very welcome one. For me, like many others I'm sure, it all started with MySpace. During my time in the States I discovered Facebook, which turned out to be a great way to keep in touch with all my newfound friends after returning to South Africa. In fact, it proved to be so addictive that I at one point easily changed my status anything from 2 to 3 times a day ... every day. But eventually the novelty seemed to wear off somewhat, and I found myself graduating to Twitter.

Out of the 3, Twitter has probably had the most profound impact on my life. For the first couple of months things were kind of slow, and aside from the occasional status update there wasn't much else for me to do. However, I pretty soon learned that you should never underestimate the value of a well placed hashtag. And one day it all just took off. All of a sudden  I found myself interacting with a group of people from both South Africa and abroad - a group that has continued to grow, and still does week by week.

Twitter became a place where I could turn when the loneliness became too much, because there I now had an "extended family" who were there to make me laugh, console me and help me through the bad days. I have come to care for my tweeps a great deal, and I feel lucky to have made strong bonds with a couple of individuals - some of who I've now also had the privilege of meeting in real life.

Of course you can't mention Twitter, without mentioning a little thing called flirting. Yes, there's quite a bit of that taking place on Twitter. And as someone who's never really attracted attention from guys, I have to admit that it's been flattering. I mean, who doesn't like attention?

As wonderful as social networking may be however, there's still a problem. You see, at the end of the day you still have to log off Facebook and Twitter at some point. That's when reality settles in, and you realise that you're still stuck exactly where you were when it all started - all alone on your living room couch. That's when you start questioning how many of these people would ever actually socialise with you, kiss you or hug you if they got to meet you in real life.

That's when you realise that no amount of virtual hugs, kisses and encouragement can ever substitute a warm embrace, a pat on the back or a reassuring squeeze of the hand. Because you see, at the end of the day we all still long for one thing above all others.

That human touch.