I always err on the side of caution when the subject of meeting online friends in real life comes up. This is not because I distrust my online friends/don’t want to meet them if the opportunity came up, but simply because one can never be too careful in this day and age, especially when there are always stories on the news about “Myspace murderers” or “Facebook stalkers” and the like.

I think the internet is a great tool that can help one find new friends, if used appropriately. Obviously I’m not going to agree to meet up with a random Facebook person from Nigeria who specializes in photographing models and helping kickstart their career. But I wouldn’t say no to meeting someone from say, TFL, as I’ve known the people there for years and many of the members at both communities have become my good friends. I’d even go as far to say that in some respects, I am closer to a few of my online friends than some of my offline ones!

I have met up with Melody, Skyped with Alice, and will hopefully be meeting Rebekah early next month. These are all girls whom I love dearly and had a great time when hanging out with them in person and I love sharing online haunts with them. However, that’s because we were friends and then we met up; we didn’t arrange to meet in person to become friends. I think that, along with common sense and good judgment, is where a lot of the difference lies between the friendships I have with my online friends versus people who scour the internet to find a friend.

Tags: opinions