When I was a kid, we had the institution of pen pal. Kids writing postcards and letters to each other once or twice a month, or if they were really, really diligent, maybe once a week.

Now, in the last couple years things has changed, I spend my evenings chatting with friends from Hong-Kong, Argentina, France, South Africa, the United States, daily contact, sharing jokes, news, problems, giving grocery tips, having fun.

And not once or twice a month, but every day.

But with the fun comes the sometimes not so fun things. When I hear about the hurricanes in Florida, my first thought is the hope that my friend living there is alright. If I hear about shootings in Colombia, I hope that my friend living there is ok.

The world has shrunk a lot, and it means that events on the other half of the globe has an effect on my life, in my own living room.

This all just came to mind as I received the news that a girl, who was part of an online game I play, has died in Iraq. Maybe we never met or just exchanged a few words, but nevertheless she was part of a group, and it has shown me that nothing is far away anymore.

When people start to get hit by hurricanes, tsunami, famine, armed attacks, it’s not “some poor blokes” out there, but people you can have a few memories of even if only an occassional friendly “Hi”.

When the people start to shoot other people somewhere in a remote corner of africa, some people in Australia, Japan, Europe won’t just say “poor guys” but “hey, you hurt MY friend, you bastards!”.

I don’t know if it is a good thing, or a bad thing. Maybe it will help the world to get a bit more peaceful, or maybe not.

But I feel that the world got smaller in a sense, and a lot of good and bad things moved in with me, and I am glad that the good things are in majority.