More and more of our lives are being lived through our screens. Everything happens online now and there is no real escaping it. Like everything in life it should be practised with balance in mind. Personally I’m a fan.
I spend a lot of time online and I love it.
There are times where it can overtake my ‘real’ life but I’m working on that.
What I have realised is that I have many friends that I never see in the flesh. We chat everyday and some of these people know more about me than my family would. Our connection doesn’t need to be cemented in weekly meet ups. I find it strange referring to some of them as friends because not only do I never see them…..I never have!
I’m sure some of you are wondering how you can have a friendship with someone you have never met?
Well don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
My online mates are the best. I am invested in them. I care about what happens to them but there is a clear divide between the virtual and the reality. My online cohort knows little of my real life friends and visa versa.
There is one huge gaping problem with having a friendship that occurs strictly in the online world. If anything happened to them, no one would think to let you know! I know it’s a very morbid thought to have but it is the truth. I have had this conversation with a close friend and I have actually asked him to tell one person in his real life about me so that if he was ever in trouble or unwell that someone would think to let me know.
I can’t imagine the horror of talking to someone day in day out only for them to fall off the face of the earth and never finding out what happened.
Hopefully it’s not something that will happen to me but it’s a real possibility. I often thought about compiling a little list of people who I’d like to be contacted if anything were to happen to me. After writing this I think I will do just that. If you have loads of online mates, maybe you should too!
Blush, Belly and Babies 
did you try meet them offline? i mean, sometimes when you chat with them online, you enjoy it and you have curious with their look.
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Some live very far away
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It’s nice to connect online, but the older I get the more I’m finding that it can’t ever replace what you get from true face time. laurensparks.net
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I must admit that some of my best friendships have been made online. It makes connections to people you wouldn’t have normally met if it wasn’t for online services such as facebook groups, twitter etc. It also opens up doors of opportunities. #mixitup
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very much so and this is why i think it would be devastating to lose touch and to never know what happened!
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I’ve had it happen to me a couple of times. One was a guy I used to talk to every day and he just disappeared. We even talked on the telephone at work, because back then online chatting was unreliable (think circa 1998, You Got Mail era) The second was a lady in a forum that I was a member of for many years. She just vanished overnight. Then about a year later, another member of our forum found an article about her falling off a cliff! I think having back up is a good idea, someone in the ‘real’ world to let your other family know.
#mixitup
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oh gosh that’s awful, thank you for taking the time to comment.
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I have the same thoughts too sometimes
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I’m glad that these new possibilities exist.We have to take it positively.Since we’re living in a digital world,meeting friends online is really unavoidable,and I think it’s cool.However,once in a while, we should also take a break from this so we can spend some quality time with our loved ones who truly matter to us.
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yes, all about balance!
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😃😃
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