What are friends for ?

What is wrong with the way people relate these days.. ?

I have been chatting through email with a few people online, trading stories and feelings, talking about family situations and events in one's life, taking care not to reveal too much of one's details. There have been some very interesting people who still remain online friends and share a form of comradery that exists because of the nature (or un-naturalness) of the situation.

But every now and then we start a new one, and in the vein of the established set, one goes off with the new acquaintance, chatting merrily away, without a care in the world.. only to find the next time you look, a rather dubious email relating to your attitude towards some worshipped celebrity or singer/songwriter, sexism, political affiliation, or even an accidental slight over some personal detail, that I, as an objective, innocent bystander, could not possibly have known about, and a short, sharp goodbye ensues..

If I am correct in my thinking, it is not so much that I am a bigoted, or intolerant consumer, as the very diversity of art and music is what attracts me to it. And it is not the recipients' uncompromising views that have forced this anomalous disgruntlement.

But I think that the medium, "the internet" and the ease at which we can access the open minds of the outer reaches of our world populous, crashing, almost, into eachother, intellectually, the jokes and quips of mental banter, playing havoc with the sensitive egos of a people far removed.
I feel like one of those terrible, catholic colonialists trapesing all over their thousands of years of culture, playing the well known London "Wide (colonial) Boy", and pandering to that age old myth, that the Westerners are shallow and cruel, and have "lost that loving feeling"... whoa.. whoa.. ?

I do not particularly like Celine Dion's singing or her repertoire, but I have nothing against the woman at all.. ?
My musical tastes vary, and if some stranger online incidently slighted one of my many heroes, I would stay dumb, and let it rest upon their laurels, their art would be their defence, all I can do is enjoy it.. or not.. ?