Today’s question can be both fun and a bit frustrating for many of you. Supposing that you have at least some continuing, good relations with any of your distant relatives. If you had a choice of either meeting your distant relatives in person or chatting with them online with, which one would you choose?

I would like to ask you to keep three things in mind for this question. First, imagine that your relatives lived at a place where you could go and visit them if you really wanted to, or if you had the resources, like money or time. Second, imagine that you had some kind of a relationship with your distant relatives so that you could go visit them for any reason you considered important, or that you wanted to meet them to solve any disputes. Third, by distant relatives I am referring to relatives who may not be close to you, mentally, emotionally, or in some other manner. I am not referring to actual physical distance by the word “distant.”

5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives in person and interacting with them online

To help you decide the answer or give you more information about the nature of this question, I would like to present to you 5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives in person and 5 random benefits of meeting them online. If you had to meet your distant relatives in person, your choices could be to walk, drive, take the bus, horse, train, plane, ship, etc. For chatting online, you could type things via chats or e-mails, having voice chats, do webcam, etc. For this question, I would like for you to keep two things in mind.

5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives in person

1. Meeting a distant relative face to face can show your willingness to know them more. Only chatting with them online may show that you do not consider them important enough to go visit them.
2. Can result in more interaction between family members
3. An offline presence can leave a greater memory impact on many people than an online conversation
4. Hanging out with actual family members can also enable one to help them in small ways, like helping in cooking, helping clean, etc, which results in more family bonding

5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives online

1. Can removes a lot of nervousness that may happen because of meeting relatives for the first time, because of past arguments with them, etc
2. Can allow one to talk more informally than is possible online, regardless of the age of the other person
3. Saves time and money, specially if you are not rich or do not have a lot of time to go meet distant relatives at times when they are not doing anything else
4. Online, many awkward situations can be ignored. For example, one can get to know someone online a bit more and then know them online

Do you prefer having your distant relatives live virtually inside your computer, or do you prefer them living in an offline place where you could go meet them in person?

So, do you prefer communicating with your distant relatives online, or do you prefer meeting them in person?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it.

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[update August 26th, 2006 - 9:30 pm PST] Ronald asked below in his comment if I meant physical or mental distance by the word “distant relatives.” I have clarified that in the article, thanks. [/update]

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