With all these social networking and Internet Era : Are we Really staying Connected?

Since last few months I have been facing a question regarding whether we are making effective use of social networking and internet and staying connected to our friends and family in real sense? Thus in this post I decided to pen down few incidents that I have faced being away from home for almost 7 years now for education, job etc reasons..I believe most of the audience who will read this post should have same experiences and may well adore on what I have to say through this blog...

When it comes to word social networking; first what comes to our mind is a very popular medium facebook..This is the only book people read once they are passed out of college and its read so often that its a part of daily routine.No doubt we have cool features to chat with a friend, to share the status of our mind ,so on and so forth.
but do we really feel connected through a bond while doing all this..?
I guess the brain will ans YES and heart will ans No to this question..:)

Let us come to particular incidents now..Say a group of friends meet after 2-3 years and they decide to have a cool dinner at some authentic restaurant..Most of them work in reputed companies and use to be in contact with each other through social network , smses , etc..Thus now when an actual meet is kept with an agenda that they can spend a quality time together..Next para explains the real situation which happens in a restaurant..

Everybody comes to a decided place and greet each other with a sweet hello and an adorable smile..
After they are settled on their seats..few start checking their cell phones for smses , calls or surfing..
Somebody reminds all of them some humorous incidents during their college days and not all pay hid to that
cause they might already had that topic during chat on some fine day earlier..By this time food comes and all of them concentrate on their plates and meantime they keep looking  at their cell phones each time the light flashes..
So the sad part here is actually they don't have any topic left for discussion cause all that they had it was done in chat..so here agenda of a meet remains questioned..

The above incident was just a snapshot which helps us brainstorm on question of real connectivity and social bond..Now think of a situation where you go home after 4-5 months for some festival...Your parents expect you to sit and talk with them , go and meet various relatives; but what exactly happens is you update your facebook status with 'enjoying mom made food' and then you go out and give a round to your native to see what all has changed and howz everything there instead of staying in home , talking to parents , grand parents , etc..Also whatever amount of time we stay at home we again open the lappy or cell and start surfing...So does this stuff has helped in sustaining family values?

It seems like now expressions of a face are defined and put in terms of smileys and sentences of discussions are made of shortest words in vocabulary..Does this help convey a right message..Probably YES it does..But question remains is does it make you feel connected? Probably the ans is NO.

Internet and social networks help us connect faster but not better if we look for real values of what staying connected means...They are indeed helpful in conveying a message officially;but excessive usage of them are making us disconnected from real world and family..

If I meet my friend for a coffee then till the coffee finishes, I have almost all my topics of discussions finished and then no option remains than checking yr cell or looking around to others; who probably be in the same situation..Because you can type 1000s of characters in chat and when you really meet and that's the time actually you should talk more and get connected through a special bond of friendship..that does not happen
which unfortunately navigates us to a conclusion that we are getting connected only through virtual links in this real world...

Virtual links would help us bond better in terms of official work and yes that does make it even faster..but when it comes to sustain the value of various precious relationships around; we should give a thought on what will really make us feel connected in todays world...

Someone has rightly said that :
'Nobody will remember how many marks you scored or degrees, money  you earned, but they will always remember how you made them feel at some particular point of time in life'

Thus Bond better and give a thought on this -:)

P.S. : This post was in my mind since past 2-3 months and I compiled it when I went home for this Diwali
         after 4 months and written this in 1 hour which was spent alone once I was back from home.

         Your valuable comments and feedbacks will keep motivating and correcting me :)