Are Your Internet Friends Your Real Best Friends?
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Awesome Applesauce: Charles Quevedo
Have you ever felt like your Internet friends are your "BFF"s (Best Friends Forever)? Have you ever gone out with "real-life" friends and wished that you were back home and chatting with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Dailybooth, Stickam, Ustream, or any other social networking site you go onto? Do you ever feel that your Internet friends are your "best friends"?
We spend more than 1/4 of our day on social networking sites; connecting with individuals who may live in the next city, county, state or even in a country across the globe. They know your name, your family, your occupation, your interests, and your birthday. You feel like you can confide in them your deepest darkest secrets. When chatting with the same individuals on-line almost every day, you become emotionally close to them. You feel like they really understand you. You start to trust and care for them. Why? 
Aren't these individuals still just acquaintances over the computer screen? Aren't 
they still just text, photos, and livestreaming images over the computer? No, not necessarily. It's possible for friendships, that started over the Internet, to enter real life and become real friendships. If your Internet friends lives close by, you can arrange a meeting and spend time with them in real life. Some Internet friendships are so strong, individuals are willing to travel long distances (even overseas) to meet the person that they've gotten to know on-line.
Of course, you have to be careful who you talk to. There are those shady individuals who misrepresent themselves on-line. How well do you really know your Internet friends? Do you believe everything your Internet friends say in their profiles, e-mails, private messages, and tweets? Back in October 2009, 17 year-old Ashleigh Hall on Facebook; was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a 33 year-old man who she met on that site. The 33 year-old man, Peter Chapman, created a fake profile (with photographs), posing as a handsome teenage boy, to gain her trust and lure her away from her family home. The night before her body was found, the teenage girl told her mother that she was spending the night with a Facebook friend. That night happened to be her last night. Now, I'm NOT saying that everybody you meet on-line is totally fake and a potential serial murderer. You just have to use your instincts and best judgement when letting new people into your life. In real life, I've met some Internet friends who are as awesome as they appear on-line. When meeting people over the Internet, you trust that they are the way they portray themselves to be.
Real friends are individuals who enter your life and changes it forever. It can happen to you. Open up your mind that friendships come in many forms. Getting to know someone is deeper than physically touching them. It doesn't matter if you can't reach out and touch them with your hand, you know that they're only a keystroke away and that they'll be there for you if you need them to be.