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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Online friends in 'real life' - how common is it?

How many of your friends did you first meet online and later meet in real life?

  • none

    Votes: 19 22.1%

  • A few

    Votes: 42 48.8%

  • About half

    Votes: 13 15.1%

  • Most

    Votes: 12 14.0%

  • All

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Don't know

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    86
Samadhi

Samadhi

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Oct 21, 2000
Messages
12,987
Hi,

On behalf of Tronica:

I have met quite a few of my close friends (and my husband!) through online forums, although this happens less often for me now than it did years ago.

So I have been wondering whether my experience is becoming more normal as the internet becomes a more common part of our everyday lives.

Do you think people's social lives are influenced a lot by forums and other internet sites, or is it more just a way of keeping in touch with people you already know?

PS. This poll question is one part of my online survey about drug discussion. I'd love you to participate if you have 15 minutes spare sometime. Link: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=346162
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I'm sure there are other threads in other parts of bluelight relating to the same topic, but this is a specific question relating to our region.

:)
 
It's rare that I make a true online "friend" and don't make the effort to meet them IRL, geography permitting of course.

Many of my very good real life friendships have grown from online ones (and here I'm really only talking about bluelight), and like most friendships they go through their ups and downs and periods of non-contact and so on, but they're real nonetheless. It's kind of amusing when you're at your hen's night trying to explain how you know this and that friend from this "Bluelight" site :D
 
I haven't met most of my friends FROM the internet, but I have met some.
I also use the internet to communicate probably more so than the phone

I don't know how I feel about that hah
 
People around here are not that "online" so it is not easy. Most of the people I met online and became friends are young, like 10 years younger than I am.
 
I've only really ever met up with 2 people I became friends with online. That was awkward and it was only really to buy weed...

I think it's just a bit too weird for me because I know that people will already have a pre conceived notion of what I'll be like, and I feel a bit nervous about whether or not I'll end up how they expected, better worse etc... whereas meeting someone in person for the first time, they have no expectations, and they in a way see me as I truly am.

On the internet you have to basically assume the way things have been said and such, and this will likely not always be the way they had intended to come accross.

So basically I'm nervous as fuck meeting people that I already "know" but really don't.
 
Strawberry_lovemuffin said:
It's kind of amusing when you're at your hen's night trying to explain how you know this and that friend from this "Bluelight" site :D
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I know what you mean. My hubby and I decided to include the bit about meeting through a dance music forum in our wedding materials (we had a wedding website). Was a bit difficult explaining to some of the elder family members what it was ... no it wasn't a dating site ;)
 
I chose "a few", but it's actually only one. And that was through msn. I was at a friends house, waiting for him to get ready, and randomly started talking to some chick on his msn, then talked to her on my own msn for about a year, then met in real life.
 
I had a dude that I was pretty close to for a short time and have since remained good mates with.
I also have a number of what i would call aquaintences from here whom I wouldnt find it very hard to become really close to if we lived a bit closer and in some cases in the same country as........lol
One very special friend lives in Wales and we are both planning to meet up either there or here or both. We also now chat via msn and also the phone etc from time to time.

I also have met a number of dudes via playstation online games, one of whom I see reasonably regularly as I do work for him at his home.

I dont see why becoming friends initially online should be any different to anywhere else and I dont consider that any online friendships I have are anything other than real life.

Unless I am in a dream then this IS real life.............just different ways of meeting and communicating than what our oldies grew up with.

Ostrich............I understand what you mean...........the first time I met anyone from Bluelight was some time ago but I was absolutely shitting myself..........I seriously expected they would have 3 arms or four boobs or snakes for tongues........... in retrospect it was a bit of a let down to find they were normal like me.
 
MazDan said:
I dont see why becoming friends initially online should be any different to anywhere else and I dont consider that any online friendships I have are anything other than real life.
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I guess the difference is that if we were all 10-20 years older, we would have grown up without having the internet as a source of friends.... we would have used different ways but they would not have had the particular characteristics of the internet - where location is less relevant, the written word is favoured compared to the spoken word, and you can present yourself so differently to face-to-face interactions if you choose!
 
Yes but you have the entire world to choose your friends from...........not just the few you happen to bump into.

That means that the quality of those friends is gunna be far far higher.
 
i meet more friends online than in real life
but we've established that i'm a social retard, so i'm bowing out of this thread
 
The only people I've met from online are bluelighters and I guess there's only a few I've met frequently enough to consider friends. Though all have been pretty cool.
 
preacha said:
i meet more friends online than in real life
but we've established that i'm a social retard, so i'm bowing out of this thread
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Actually I think if you gave yourself half a chance you would actually do very well for yourself.............I can see you have a lot going for you. Sometimes you have to show a bit more belief in oneself and take that step of faith.



LP..........do you feel that you have to actually meet people in order to become friends?

I dont.........I generally know from the way people talk online whether im likely to click or not and have made a number of close mates that i have never met face to face.
 
I don't know really. I guess I define friendship more by hanging out and drinking etc. than interacting online.
 
Yeah I understand what you mean............ I guess my online close mates are also people I have had many long nights chatting with via msn etc so its fairly similar.
 
Mr Samadhi and I have quite a few friends that we've met online - people we consider really good friends, who we hope will be in our lives in the long term. We've vistited them interstate a few times, and vice versa - most recently a large group spent a birthday holiday with me in Byron Bay - as it turned out, they were all people we'd intially met online.

I have other friends i've met through work, and through other friends, my best friend being one of them (i've known her for around 10 years), however i don't see anyone from school anymore, except for the odd "run into eachother somewhere" occasion, however some of the people i've met in the last 7 years, while posting on bluelight, have become true friends, people i can count on, and people that can count on me. :)
 
praticaly no one where I live even has a comp, people i meet on BL ect are usually an hour drive away at the least
 
There's a few bluelighters I consider my good friends, and another few I consider good associates. Then there's a whole lot more who I don't mind, but yeah, we've never neither clicked or had a reason to dislike each other. There's a few, only a small amount, who I'd definitely rather not see at all.

There's only one other forum I've met people off and that was in a time before bluelight. I still see some of the people, but very, very casually.

Then again, I only see my best friend very casually these days... :\
 
Do you think people's social lives are influenced a lot by forums and other internet sites, or is it more just a way of keeping in touch with people you already know?
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I think peoples lives are very influenced by what they do on the net, what forums they visit etc. Some people get so absorbed by it that they lose touch of what is real life and what is isn't. I have met quite a few people off forums when ive been out and about. But i tend to know the ones who are 'real' and the ones who are just pretending to be like their online personas.

My life isn't heavily influenced by what forums i frequent online. When im out and about the town though for the night it generally does become the point at which i have in common with people.

Ive met some awesome people online and am really good mates with still offline, we are quite close actually. My partner insomnia and i met through BL around 2002 and met again through BL 5yrs later a yr ago and we are happily strong and together and as he says...practically married =D <3
 
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