The Ties That Bind

Sept. 10, 2007 — -- Peter Oakley's 80th birthday was the best celebration of his life. The retired widower, living in the English countryside, received wishes and gifts from people around the world -- most of whom he did not know -- thanks to the Internet.

Oakley led a quiet existence, but when he decided to post videos of his autobiographical musings -- called "Telling It All" -- on YouTube, he received thousands of e-mails from fans moved by his grandfatherly online presence.

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His videos were often simple declarations about his age. In one he says, "I really am as old as I look, and, therefore, I think I'm in a unique position, what I hope I'll be able to do, is bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who's been there and done that."

In a little more than a week, Oakley, also known on YouTube as "Geriatric 1927," became the most subscribed to user on the site.

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When ABC asked him how his life has been enhanced by his newfound Internet connections, he replied, "More than I have the words to express."

Although Americans spend more than 2 million hours online a month -- most of that time spent communicating with others -- surveys reveal that Americans by and large still view the Internet as a destructive force when it comes to personal relationships.

But recent research shows that the Internet actually helps people maintain and strengthen existing ties and forge new ones. So which is it? Do our hard drives have a heartbeat or are they the death knell of actual kinship?

ABC News talked to those whose lives were made better because of the ties they've made on the Internet.

Ryanne Hodson and Jay Dedman are video blog pioneers. Before YouTube and other online video Web sites, they were posting their lives online. At the time it was a small community and they began casually observing each other's videos from afar. Ryanne lived in Boston and Jay in New York City.

Their friendship gradually turned into a virtual courtship with nightly uploads of romantic declarations.

"I don't know what else to say," Ryanne posted one night. "I feel like I'm not allowed to tell you that I like you, like it's some weird thing that I'm supposed to keep a secret which I don't want to keep a secret. So there, now you know."

Jay uploaded a response the next day: "I got to work today and I watched your video this morning and I can't tell you, I just, I was thinking about it all day and it just made me feel really good. First of all, I like you a lot as well, I mean, I hope that's obvious, too."

A few months after they began posting those videos for one another, Ryanne moved to New York and in with Jay. In celebration of their one year anniversary, Jay blogged about the impact those videos had on their long distance relationship.

"E-mails would not have captured the craziness of how we felt. We couldn't be so intimate in phone calls because the immediacy of the moment and fear of the other person judging you, but making recorded videos allowed us to open up," Jay wrote. "Ryanne's talking head meant more to me than anything else going on at the time. It was real then and it's real now."

Jay and Ryanne have now been together for three years and are now engaged and living in San Francisco.

Petty Officer Shawn Johnson and his wife, Kristin, are separated by time zones and continents. She's in Mobile, Ala., about to deliver their firstborn son and he's with the Navy serving in Iraq. Not long ago, Johnson would have to settle for a photo of his newborn baby, but today he is virtually at his wife's side, coaching her through her delivery. The two were joined through a satellite connection on freedomcalls.org and webcams at both ends.

When Johnson's son is born, the nurse lifts the baby up to the camera and with a big grin on his face he says to the nurse, "Thank you ma'am. I really appreciate that. I'm going to be smiling in my sleep tonight. You just made me a proud man."