A while ago I had to write an essay on this so I shall ask a few questions - how far can an internet friendship truly go to your eyes? What about online dating? There's so much around especially with these social sites like Facebook. On the contrary I've noticed a majority of my real life friends aren't that social with me via facebook. So just...How far can it go?
To me, I have some really good friends on the internet who have been that way for about 2 years, and I could compare them to at least people who are my acquaintances in real life. What about internet relationships? I don't know but I have a friend of my mom's who was almost scammed from it, then again, she met her only long term husband to date on it and is still his wife to date.
But here's something else to add; Often on sites like these people are much more open than they would be in real life. This applies to a majority of the internet which in a sense helps move things quicker. A few of my internet friends know stuff that most of my real life friends don't quite know.
I don't have much else to say on the subject and honestly my essay on it was just rambling. So, what do you think about the whole shebang?
Friendships can go a long way on the internet.
And relationships, they can go a long way, but I think they're stupid over the internet. Guy: "Oh hi, I'm Fred, I'm talking to you because I have no life" InternetHerbet: "Oh *giggle* ur funny" *2 days later* iHerbert: "i think i love u fred" Fred: "I love you too Wilma" iHerbert: "we should meet in real life and take it to the next level, ill go to ur city and make ur bed rock"
For all anyone knows, that could easily be a lot of people's internet relationship, even with pics.
The only way an internet relationship should be done is if it is between people who normally live near the each other and one is temporarily gone on vacation or something
I have some really good friends on the internet. Crow, X, and heck, I would consider some people on here also. I think the internet is a great place to make friends. Sometimes it is easier to talk to a person that has no face as well.
As for dating, I think it's kinda wierd. Like Jr. said, very strange things happen.
Internet relationships of all kind are possible. I wouldn't consider internet dating actually dating, though. It's more like fooling around until you actually meet and step things up. At least one of the people is probably just a distraction or a "good time" for the other person.
You can have friends to an extent on the internet. But like I said, you can't really consider them good friends until you've met and stepped things up. The internet may be a more intimate place, but it is just as deceiving as it is open. So you have to be more careful when "befriending" people on the internet. You shouldn't fully trust someone that you can't see.
Isn't there a couple that met on World of Warcraft and later married each other through World of Warcraft? Or if not married, then the guy proposed to her over WoW. Then again you also had that guy marry a virtual girl in a video game. People do some weird stuff.
Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with meeting other people over the internet, for friendships or dates, but you have to be careful about it. On the one hand people are more open, so you get to see people's true colors online, but a lot of times people can sound a lot more charismatic in text than they actually are in person. Obviously dating is more serious than mere friendship, and I for one wouldn't recommend online dating, but I've heard tales of it working in the past (especially when the two lived close enough) so I wouldn't disregard it as a possibility completely.
When it comes to friends, I don't think it's a problem at all. The only issue is that online friends are still no substitute for real life ones, and people who depend on online friends as their sole friends in life are going to run into problems later on. It's not healthy to live completely digitally, and socializing with real people is far different from socializing with people online. Still, that doesn't mean that internet friends are bad, just that you need real life friends too.
Online friendships go pretty far for me, because I spend so much time online. Of course, internet friends can't fully replace my awesome, awesome real life friends, but I'm very close to my internet friends. Online dating, I can't give much of an opinion on, because I've really never tried it. I imagine it to be less stressful than IRL dating, though.
Hm... don't have much of an opinion on internet dating, but... friends?
In my opinion, reading what I've seen, internet friendships can actually work really quite well. I mean, sure, it's easy to lie about your age and where you live, but... age and where you live really shouldn't matter to a friend. It should be your personality. And it's not that difficult to figure out a person's personality online, even without the help of body language, emphasis, and facial expressions. Each person has a different personality, so each person will react to the same event differently and use different words to describe it. It gets to the point where you can start figuring out how a person would have said the same statement in real life, and what emotions they would put into it.
As I said, though, it can be easier to make friends in real life, but that's mostly because you can tell so much more about a person's personality, simply by watching them.
Quote from: Night the Lucario on March 29, 2010, 03:57:35 AM
Hm... don't have much of an opinion on internet dating, but... friends?
In my opinion, reading what I've seen, internet friendships can actually work really quite well. I mean, sure, it's easy to lie about your age and where you live, but... age and where you live really shouldn't matter to a friend. It should be your personality. And it's not that difficult to figure out a person's personality online, even without the help of body language, emphasis, and facial expressions. Each person has a different personality, so each person will react to the same event differently and use different words to describe it. It gets to the point where you can start figuring out how a person would have said the same statement in real life, and what emotions they would put into it.
As I said, though, it can be easier to make friends in real life, but that's mostly because you can tell so much more about a person's personality, simply by watching them.
The difference is that people on the internet get a much longer allotted reaction time. Their actual reaction can be very different from what they portray to the internet.
But then there are things like video chat and the like that eliminate that and allow you to see the person you are talking to in a much more intimate way. Besides being unable to physically touch the person, you can do almost anything over video chat.
Friendships can definitely blossom over the internet. I'd still be wary of them until you've actually established a real bond. And I wouldn't call them true friends until you've actually met them and shook their hand. But the internet can be the start to friends, it just needs to be coupled with real life interaction in order to really work out well, in my opinion.
bumped for move
friends on the internet...I just got a new thought about right now...considering im a slightly cihtapelet to what people actually think. I have noticed that a huge amount of the percent of people lie a lot on the internet just to escape their everyday troubles. This makes me think friendships over the internet is like having a false life, a second face, and a second untruthful personality. I have recently learned through experience because anyone i talk to about problems and what not, i get laughed at right in my face. Man am i one of the only people that is truthful here? I mean really, leave your phobias and insecurities behind and let out the freakin truth already.
Yeah, if you do end up getting in a friendship over the internet that is truthful, it should be fine. People make mistakes that they don't even realize they make on the internet that connects to their lie they made. Thats how i wind up finding it. I have good friends over the internet, and some of them turned out to be two faced, so i got rid of em. It is useless stress that is not needed to consume time if you run into liars, but if you run into someone truthful, you easily become friends.
I have in the past weeks and I find it great, but i have had more cons than pros about online friendships.
I have good ones, and i have met a couple more in the past 2 weeks.
EDIT: Online dating.......i could careless about relationships right now after the crap she pulled on me.
I think online friendships can go a long way. Actually, most of the people I consider "friends" are online ones. In fact, the BSC Team (SolarisParadox and SomeCallMeJohnny) are probably my two best friends as far as that goes.
Online romantic relationships are a whole other deal though. While you can meet the person you can be romantically inclined towards online, the relationship would really need to be a RL one to be considered legit, otherwise it's just kind of, not...
First off, you have to be really careful and obviously don't believe anything anybody says. But at the same time, when you come to a site like this one and you don't know anybody in person, you do become more open with your life. You have much less to lose.
Dating is the same thing. If you're careful and know what you're doing, it can work out. That eHarmony or whatever, it might be easy to make fun of but it can be seriously legit at the same time. There are people who have had successful relationships that started online.
Tl;dr Be careful, don't be stupid. If you decide to meet with someone in person, let someone else know where you are and stuff, there are some seriously creep dudes out there.
Know this for a fact snow, this creeper with an IP locater tracked me down once and tried to rob my house.
Well
He did end up with a 36 pointed on his head and then screamed to high heaven. Personally, I don't care whoever it is finds out my location, because if they do, they'll just be in more deep poop than they think they are in for.
and always carry a gun :3
Online relationships can go far, IMO. I'v tried it before, however i'm not really sure if it was an *Online relationship* I met her here and only knew her for 1-2 weeks before she moved. We kept talking online, on the phone etc. Until we eventually got together, and we were together for a long while. And she meant alot to me and blah blah blah IM TAILS
Online friendships can also be similar, i'm good friends with like 3-4 people online.
And i'm good friends with 3-4 people in Real life so :3
Quote from: Tails on April 17, 2010, 11:04:52 AM
Online relationships can go far, IMO. I'v tried it before, however i'm not really sure if it was an *Online relationship* I met her here and only knew her for 1-2 weeks before she moved. We kept talking online, on the phone etc. Until we eventually got together, and we were together for a long while. And she meant alot to me and blah blah blah IM TAILS
Online friendships can also be similar, i'm good friends with like 3-4 people online.
And i'm good friends with 3-4 people in Real life so :3
If you never met each other in real life, then I'd consider that an online relationship. And honestly, I don't believe in those. For all anyone knows, they are based completely on lies. It'd be very hard to prove the legitimacy of the relationship.
If you met the person online, eventually met each other in real life, and then began to date, then I would not consider that an online relationship. I'd consider it a real relationship, and those are fine. There's no problem with meeting someone online first, and eventually it blossoming into a real life friendship, and then into a deeper relationship. Sometimes the internet can be used to meet people far away that you never would have known otherwise.
I'm not much of a believer in long distance relationships, though. They seem to crumble much faster, plus they can be a serious strain and a hassle. If it's temporary long distance, the couple should be able to pull through. But otherwise, long distance relationships can be as completely fake as online ones can be. You can never be sure.
Not saying that a real relationship can't be built on falsities. They can, sure. But it's actually hard and takes real deceit to do that to someone in real life. Well, you guys probably know what I mean. So I'll leave it at that.
Being a friend with someone over the internet (aka never actually meeting them IRL)iIs the stupidest intercourse ing crap ever.
I don't have many online friendships with people that aren't already my friends irl (That is my first time using "irl", I feel somewhat more like a nerd D:).
I think they can go a long way with some people, but I just think it's kinda weird to call someone you've never met in person a "friend". Although, I did meet this one person I originally started talking to on deviantART about a year ago. He lives in Oaxaca, and I happened to be by there when I went on vacation. We are pretty good friends and still talk today.
As for online relationships, I really don't see how that could work, at all.
On oldsider, I had had a good friend that I considered a friend, we talked in PM a lot. He said he liked this girl on the forum who liked him too, he even made a sig with both of their screen names on it, apparently dating and never meeting. Then he got a pic of her and was like "EEEEWWWW" (she was fat as intercourse ) and dumped her, or just stopped talking to her, I don't remember.
I think it's incredibly challenging to find friends over the internet simply because you don't know what is fact, and what is fiction. On the chance you DO make a genuine friend, or one you perceive as such, I think it has the great benefit of anonymity. They're not as judgmental as IRL friends, nor are they as fickle. As such, yes, I have a few online "friends" whom I consider myself very close with. But beyond that, I'd call everyone else an acquaintance.