There are individuals who tend to belittle online friendships, claiming
that you can’t really be friends with someone you have never met.
However, to those who invest a great deal of time and energy into their
online friendships, they are very real. Of course, there are different
types of online friendship. Sometimes, you connect with someone, because
it gives you an opportunity to share your writing or promote your blog.
However, there are occasions when you discover that you have something
in common with a person who you randomly added as a friend, and you
begin to build a more solid friendship.
Online friendships work in pretty much the same way as real-life
friendships, in that you ask each other questions and discover more
about each other’s upbringing, education, career, family, interests and
beliefs. The only significant difference is that instead of sitting
across a table, face-to-face, you are probably typing away at a
computer. Perhaps there isn’t quite as much fulfilment from an online
friendship, since you can’t simply agree to meet up for a drink or do
something together, as you could in real life. However, for some people
offline relationships are harder to come by. If you live an isolated
existence, then it might be the case that online friendship is all you
have.
Some people struggle to interact with other individuals in their
everyday lives, and so online friendships enable them to connect with
other people who may have similar problems. It could be that building
online friendships enables them to escape their problems, so that they
don’t have to worry about the fact they’re not very good in social
situations. Online friends may not seem real to other people, but when
you have spent months or years exchanging emails and chatting on instant
messenger, only you are aware of the bond you have built up. It feels
as if you understand each other, and it is reassuring to know you have
someone to confide in.
There may be some individuals online who choose to lie about who they
are and so construct elaborate identities for themselves, but this is a
pretty rare occurrence. If they are trying to get money out of you or
manipulate you in some way, it won’t take long to find out the truth. In
most cases, online friendships are built on mutual interests or shared
experiences. Some people decide that they are close enough to their
online friends to actually meet up with them, whilst for others this
just isn’t an option. Although the Internet has enabled people from all
over the world to connect, it hasn’t made travelling hundreds of miles
any more practical! Even if there is no chance of meeting an online pal
offline, it doesn’t mean that their friendship is any less worthwhile.
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