Making Friends Online: Risky or Rewarding?

[Tuatara]

"Is online friendship good or bad?" This is the question I often ask myself. I've always wondered whether my decision to meet friends online was right or wrong.

First of all, I want to share a story.
Today I lost one of my best online friends, I've ever met. I said some things I really do regreat, I don't know what I was thinking. I said some very immature things. He removed me from Skype, and from this day onwards, I will never ever get to hear him talk again. Logan, if you are reading this, you were an amazing friend, and a truely helpful person. I hope you carry this on through out your life.​

Now, to answer my own question...I think online friendship is not at all that bad. It is always good to interact with other people to widen your knowledge about the world. The one thing I got from having online friendships is having my English writing and speaking skills improve a lot. Before, I felt so hard to express myself on words, especially in English, but now, I feel a lot easier to talk and write.


So...what do you think? Is online friendship good or bad? I know many of you would probably say "I don't know because I haven't tried." Then try now! haha I'm sure you'd be interested There's nothing bad to try, besides, online friendship exists only in the virtual world.​

 

[Nikola]

Personally I experienced "Online friendship" and it's nothing to be afraid of. Yesterday I had a really significant conversation with a special person. Having friends is something that you should be proud of, it doesn't really matter if they're "online" or "in real life" the thing that really does matter is that they trust you and you trust them.

"True friends are those who came into your life, saw the most negative part of you, but are not ready to leave you, no matter how contagious you are to them." - Michael Bassey Johnson

"I'd rather have one true friend than thousand false ones."

 

[Pearlyyy]

They're really isn't anything wrong with online friendships seeing how it is always great to make friends to spread socialising skills. It can eventually open doors into making friends in real life (for anyone with social anxiety), so making friends online is great.

But the only thing you definitely have to worry about is the fact that you can't trust everyone who you consider to be ''true friends''. Especially in a gaming community too where maintaining a good reputation is important. If you don't choose your friends correctly, it WILL lead to problems that will start in game and slowly, yet surely to irl issues. Just like what FlaqeL | Nick said, you'd rather have one true friend than a few who are just fake.

So just remember that making online friends is fine, but be careful. You never know who is hiding behind that mask that is the computer screen. (wow, that sounded so lame pls no judge)

 

[Scott]

Online friendships are rewarding. Some people have even met online, met up in real life, and become good friends (or even get married if it's serious enough).

 

[Giggity69Goo]

Online friendships are great. It allows you to talk to them about certain situations going on in your real life because they can give their opinion and they're not experiencing it themselves. I have many reasons for why online friendships are great. However this is just a minecraft community, if they ever get bored about the game or the community, you should be mentally prepared to barely see them again in what possibly could be your lifetime. That's life.

 

[Electrix]

The main reason why people think making friends online is risky is because of the bad people out there. But currently I only write on this forum, and everyone I've met has been around 10-21. I highly doubt some of the people I've became friends with have been lying. Of course I wouldn't meet them irl, but that's different.

Online, you can only know what other people have told you.
In real life, you can tell many things about a person without them telling you.

 

[Harris|DareDevilMan1]

I've known w0wmonkey from July of 2014 when I was a squeaky rat and now he introduced me to like 6 other people that I play every day with. Can confirm they haven't stolen my personal information, came to my house and slaughtered my whole family and sacrificed my unborn children. Online friendship is a pretty awesome thing, if you know who to be friends with, that I fortunately know.

 

[Ewai]

I've never had an online friend. Kinda wish I did, but to me it's WAY harder to make an online friend than IRL friend.

 

[numberlock]

Making friends online is rewarding. You can meet a lot of awesome people, even from your country. You'll met some weird people along the way but 90% of people that I talk to are very nice and helpful.

 

[boboy1999]

Online friendships are rewarding. Some people have even met online, met up in real life, and become good friends (or even get married if it's serious enough).

Scott will you marry me

 

[Col_StaR]

Online friends can be just as good as real life friends. Heck, if you are good enough friends, your online friends become real life friends after getting the chance to meet them in person. Really, in terms of the social benefits between online friends and real life friends, I do not see much of a difference.

That being said, anything done online is inherently riskier because of the anonymity involved. It's a lot easier to scam and hurt a "friend" if your only contact has been through a series of tubes, and people are a lot less likely to screw each other over if there's a very real consequence of that is getting a baseball bat to the teeth. Support Team deals with stories of, "I thought this guy was my friend, but then he scammed me!" pretty much every day.
My general rule: never spend money on, or share information with anyone online until you've met them in person.

Really, it's a matter of who you're befriending, not the medium in which you do it. I've been stabbed in the front and the back both online and off, and I've made good friends both online and off.

 

[Nikola]

Online friends can be just as good as real life friends. Heck, if you are good enough friends, your online friends become real life friends after getting the chance to meet them in person. Really, in terms of the social benefits between online friends and real life friends, I do not see much of a difference.

That being said, anything done online is inherently riskier because of the anonymity involved. It's a lot easier to scam and hurt a "friend" if your only contact has been through a series of tubes, and people are a lot less likely to screw each other over if there's a very real consequence of that is getting a baseball bat to the teeth. Support Team deals with stories of, "I thought this guy was my friend, but then he scammed me!" pretty much every day.
My general rule: never spend money on, or share information with anyone online until you've met them in person.

Really, it's a matter of who you're befriending, not the medium in which you do it. I've been stabbed in the front and the back both online and off, and I've made good friends both online and off.

Couldn't explain any better. Great post Col.