Hello!
I'm going to jump right in with today's blog post: meeting online friends for the first time. With all the social networking sites we have these days it's easy to contact people across the globe wi the click of a button and I consider this a fantastic achievement for the human race in general. It allows us to not only keep in contact with old friends or family members but also make new friends and talk to people about your interests or problems without feeling judged.
Yet there is always a risk with this as some individuals lurking around the Internet do it to deceive others which can be dangerous. This is why I want to talk about this topic as some people have different ideas and understandings of it. By the end of this blog post I fully encourage everyone to comment their thoughts bellow about this topic but please remember that these are all my opinions and not fact.
Firstly I'd like to point out that I have quite a few online friends. A few of them are YouTubers or Bloggers and others are just people I've met online over common interests. Quite a lot of people stress that just because you know them online it does not mean you actually know them. This can be true but it can also be wrong.
For example, an online friend of mine who I met through a similar interest has been my friend for around 4 years now. At first we were just talking through a chat along with a group of others. I haven't had any visual or audio contact with her for the first 2 or possibly 3 years but I considered her my friend. I then started to talk to her over Skype (as well as talking to another online friend) without the visual. I eventually found out what she looked like and around 2 weeks ago we met at Comic Con in London.
Meeting friends who you have made online is not necessarily a bad thing but I do encourage you all to have both audio and visual contact with the person before meeting them and to always to it in an area where you know is secure. Please don't meet them alone; always take someone with you or meet up in a busy area or a public event where there are multiple people to help you if your online friend isn't who they say they are.
But other than these scares I fully recommend that you meet up with your on lines friends if you get the chance to because when I did it was one of the best things to ever happen! It's like having a good friend who you have known for years and finally being reunited with them. It's one of the best feelings in the world! I now can't wait to see my friend again in October and in November she plans to come down to stay with me for a weekend to go to Cardiff Comic Con.
For those of you who don't fully understand how people can trust others online to be who they say they are, please don't go telling them they are wrong or that they can't truly be friends with that person; instead make sure they know the dangers and help them to be sure that their friend is genuine.
Now that I have met one of my online friends, I can't wait to meet all the others! Two of which (a YouTuber and a Blogger) I hope to meet this summer. A few of them live in America and Canada and I may have to wait a long time to meet them and another lives in Dubai who I hope to meet but this can't be garunteed unfortunately.
One day though, I hope no wish to meet them all. I also would love to make more friends through this blog so if you ever want to talk just head over to my Twitter account where I should be able to talk a lot of the time (@thewayward_girl OR @wanderlustbeing).
