The Internet - Friendships on it

Thirdkoopa · March 27, 2010, 03:49:11 AM

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?

JrDude · March 27, 2010, 11:54:29 PM

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

Magnum · March 28, 2010, 03:00:53 AM

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.

Dog Food · March 28, 2010, 07:56:15 AM

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.

weirdAbacist · March 28, 2010, 02:52:53 PM

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.

Silverhawk79 · March 28, 2010, 05:52:21 PM

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.

Night the Lucario · 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.

Dog Food · March 29, 2010, 04:46:09 PM

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.

Macawmoses · April 12, 2010, 11:26:21 PM

bumped for move

Chris8492 · April 15, 2010, 06:18:17 PM

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.

Nayrman · April 16, 2010, 10:40:48 AM

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...

Eizweir · April 16, 2010, 07:57:02 PM

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.

Chris8492 · April 17, 2010, 10:00:09 AM

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.

Eizweir · April 17, 2010, 10:14:30 AM

and always carry a gun :3

Allegretto · 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