Saturday, May 19, 2012

Online Friends are just as "Real" as any friends


It’s funny, you have these random conversations online and the old topic comes up again, how can people you meet online be considered real friends? The amount of times I have been asked that by people I knew at University is incredible; I even copped a fair bit saying I had no social life when in fact I consider it the opposite. I will admit when I first went to University back in 2007 I didn’t go much online or frequent social media, I did sign up for Facebook but didn’t use it much.
It wasn’t until early 2010 when I was having problems in my real life that I started to frequent the social media space more often, I joined Twitter and in a very short space of time found people who wanted to get to know me. And that’s when fandom came along, when people started learning I was a fan of the TV show Castle and that I was big into sci-fi shows such as Stargate I started to find somewhere I could belong.
These shows caused a chain reaction of sorts because through one person I met another & another and another. I have now spoken to so many people from the four corners of the globe and we are all connected by our love of similar things. And as time has gone on some of these people I now consider more important to me than anyone I have ever met in real life because they genuinely care.  You’re probably sitting there reading this thinking I am completely mad, that these friends I am so willing to defend are probably nothing more than creepy middle age men in some random country. And of course there are plenty of those freaks out there who are willing to woo children to an early grave but not always. At last count I had about 730 people following me on Twitter and from those 730 I have met a good 20 of them, ok that isn’t much but it’s enough of an indication that there are real genuine people out there, it just happens to be they live too far for you to see them all the time.
Take my friend Tasha as an example, I started speaking to her online mid 2010 but it wasn’t until early 2011 that I finally got to meet her. It happened to be that Adelaide was holding a convention and she was able to fly over. It’s been over a year since I have seen her in person but thanks to sites like Twitter, Facebook etc I speak to her nearly every day. But that memory of saying goodbye to her at the airport really sticks out in my mind, even now.
And that’s the other thing I am thankful for, going to conventions started thanks to speaking to people online. I went to my first convention in late 2010, and I have gone to another 4 since then & another is in the works for next month. I now have friends who I consider part of a giant extended family all because it started online. People outside of the social media space don’t understand the fuss; even after you explain all the good points to them it doesn’t seem to change their mind. Even people now give me an odd look when I say I met my best friend online, even though it’s true. I met my best friend Michelle online through our mutual love for the TV show Sanctuary & our respect for actress Amanda Tapping. After we met in person in January 2011 we have virtually been inseparable ever since. The highlight was when we both got to speak to Amanda together thanking her for what she inevitably did.
 I don’t bother explaining myself anymore when the question gets posed to me about online friends being not real. I just simply say “They are” and move onto another topic because they never will understand because this isn’t their world.

1 comment:

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