Internet Friendships Alone Are Not Real

Taiwan Parenting
1

When I was in high school, I went to my friend’s house. We were seniors at the time. We both had our driver’s licenses and had access to cars. I had my own and he borrowed his parents’ car. One day his father walked by us as we were playing some game on those tiny green screens they used to call computers. His dad handed him a newspaper article that he had cut out about a local teenager who was killed in a car crash. He had been drinking and driving recklessly. This, to no one’s surprise led to an argument about driver’s safety and I was thrown out of the house…again. :laughing:

I got where his Dad was coming from back then and I get it now. There are certain things that parents should warn/prepare their kids for early.

My contribution is about internet friendships. They alone are not real. They are like fictive elements of real people but at such a distance that when you need them, for real, it is highly doubtful they will show up. It is far better to be able to communicate with real people and have real friends, IRL.

Case in point:[quote]
Eighteen-year-old Ashley Billasano had more than 500 Twitter followers when she took to the site with a flurry of increasingly desperate tweets that hinted at suicide – but none of them acted before she took her own life.

The Texas schoolgirl, known as “Billy,” posted 144 tweets over six hours on Monday to describe the agony she felt over having been molested and not being able to get investigators to believe her.

“That’s the story of how I came to be who I am,” the Houston girl wrote. “Well, the condensed version. I’d love to hear what you have to say but I won’t be around.”

In her final tweet, she wrote, “Take two. I hope I get this right,” apparently referring to her attempt at suicide last month.

“It’s obvious she needed somebody to talk to, and that’s what I believe those tweets were,” Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department Chief Craig Brady told My Fox Houston TV. “She was trying to communicate.”[/quote]

Read more: nypost.com/p/news/national/t … z1eTvr7Ftc

500 “friends” and no one to talk to. :s

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So our flob friends are not real? Damn.

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So our flob friends are not real? Damn.[/quote]
If you only know them via the flob, I’d have to say, Noop.

Or Facebook or Twitter or any other damn thing that gets people to not communicate with other people face to face.

Most of the people I like in flobworld, I’ve met IRL. I’m not sure I’d consider it a friendship if I hadn’t. :idunno:

4

most people who have “internet friends” are teens and they get bored of it sooner or later and get real friends. I remember when my sister was around 15 or so she was “chat room addicted” but a year later she barely touched her computer… it’s just a phase isn’t it? Most of my facebook friends are people I met in real life first and added them later to facebook, some of them I don’t know cause there are friends of friends but I don’t consider them friends anyway…at least not until I met them

5

I’ll tell you right now. For a 17-year-old schoolgirl, jdsmith has the most incredibly full and rounded buttocks.

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Are you friending yourself right now?

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Correct! This case in point.
smh.com.au/news/technology/f … 79597.html

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I guess we are not friends then JD. :smiley: :smiley: I know lots of people that I have never met, but talk to on the internet. I think of them as friends. Get with the times grandad. A freindship doesnt have to only be physical. What about pen pals in the past? Were they never friends? If you sponsor a child overseas and they write to you. Not a friendship?

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A case where common sense for once has prevailed.

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I would say these kind of ‘friends’ are actually contacts or possibly an associate?

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I would say these kind of ‘friends’ are actually contacts or possibly an associate?[/quote]

As is so often the case, this reminds me of a Simpson’s moment where the guys in the bar tell Homer how they view him. Anyone remember that? I think Moe calls him a ‘well wisher.’

What are friends then? Guys that come at 2am to drag your drunken ass off a train track, or people that you talk to almost everyday? I’ve only ever met some of the posters here once or twice yet I think of them as friends. I’ve never met GingerMan or Tainan Cowboy, but they are my friends. Deffo.

This is going down the ‘what’s a burger?’ line of inquiry.

12

I’ve met you, numbnuts.

See, there’s the rub inn’t? I would definitely say I’m friendly toward you Mr King, and I am fairly certain that we would get along very well, but are we friends now? Someone I once knew primarily through this site used to say something that irked me to no extreme, that being, “I’ve always considered you a friend.” That confused me because I wasn’t certain what that meant and it seemed to me, and still does that it’s a nicey nice way of saying, “Yeah yer alright online, but I don’t really know ya.”

But my point in this thread anyway is about teaching my kid not to place too much value in online friendships. I thought about pen pals of the yore and distinguished gentlemen exchanging letters of interest, but that’s just not what happens, not really, on online forums…not to any great extent AFAICT.

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I’ve met you, numbnuts.

See, there’s the rub inn’t? I would definitely say I’m friendly toward you Mr King, and I am fairly certain that we would get along very well, but are we friends now? Someone I once knew primarily through this site used to say something that irked me to no extreme, that being, “I’ve always considered you a friend.” That confused me because I wasn’t certain what that meant and it seemed to me, and still does that it’s a nicey nice way of saying, “Yeah yer alright online, but I don’t really know ya.”

But my point in this thread anyway is about teaching my kid not to place too much value in online friendships. I thought about pen pals of the yore and distinguished gentlemen exchanging letters of interest, but that’s just not what happens, not really, on online forums…not to any great extent AFAICT.[/quote]

It’s true that we have met, I’ve even met MiniJd!

Aren’t we friends? I’ve called you some pretty bad things and you’ve called me some pretty bad things but here we are 5+ years later getting over all that and currently commenting on each others hair length and excting diving trips on facebook. Isn’t the fact that we have overcome these disagreements some form of friendship? I’d be sad if something unfortunate happened to you. Isn’t that friendship? Maybe you dont like me like I like you. :smiley:

I totally get the point that your son needs to learn that internet friendships are artificial in some way, but isn’t that true of meeting people in the flesh? You can ‘know’ someone for years and then suddenly BLAMMO he is trying to pile drive your wife, or steal your job. You trying to impart some good old fashioned Chinese wisdom on the boy? “They are ALL cnuts I tell ya. ALL of them, except me and yer ma.”

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Yes, and apparently you recall what he had to eat! :laughing:

[quote]
Aren’t we friends? I’ve called you some pretty bad things and you’ve called me some pretty bad things but here we are 5+ years later getting over all that and currently commenting on each others hair length and excting diving trips on facebook. Isn’t the fact that we have overcome these disagreements some form of friendship? I’d be sad if something unfortunate happened to you. Isn’t that friendship? Maybe you dont like me like I like you. :smiley: [/quote]
Sure, I like you, and I would call us friends without hesitation. I think meeting you was very helpful for that though, made me realize you weren’t just ANY nutter. :laughing:

[quote]
I totally get the point that your son needs to learn that internet friendships are artificial in some way, but isn’t that true of meeting people in the flesh? You can ‘know’ someone for years and then suddenly BLAMMO he is trying to pile drive your wife, or steal your job. You trying to impart some good old fashioned Chinese wisdom on the boy? “They are ALL cnuts I tell ya. ALL of them, except me and yer ma.”[/quote]
That’s funny, and I do get that some people are pretty douchey IRL as well as online.

IRT this girl who killed herself though, clearly relying on her online friends and followers was a total bust. THAT is what I’d like to warn my son off of.