Taylor St. Romain
ENGL – 1301
February 12, 2015
Online Friends
Have you ever have that awkward moment where you meet that one person you have been talking to on social media and both of you have nothing to say to each other? Well, it turns out the social media has been the new hotspot for building relationships with other people. Recent studies show that most of the world's population has been acquainted with social media to interact with online friend. However, the qualities of using social media can also have a negative effect for most people.
Firstly, Online friends can be are not always supportive that is in the outside world at least. When you are building relationships with someone through the internet, it is difficult to tell if they are trustworthy or not. When you are on the Internet, you cannot read people's body language nor their actions; you just have to assume who they are. Moreover if you are not careful, a person online can lie to you and lure you into their trap which is called "catfishing". Catfishing is when someone on the Internet who use fake profile pics and bios in effort to form a relationship with a gullible person only to embarrass them or etc. For example, a friend of mine named Chad started online dating and has form with a relationship with this girl named Baylee. Chad set up a date for them in a Italian restaurant at 7:30 p.m. and he arrive there early to wait for the arrival of his online date, but after 3 hours Chad soon realizes that he has been stood up by Baylee or in which case, "catfished" and he left the restaurant and never talked to Baylee again. Furthermore, meeting someone you only knew online tends to build up some very awkward moments between you and your online friend.
Lastly, sometimes the Internet can also be a dangerous thing for social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and etc. You remember what I said when there are friends out there who like "catfish" people? Well the same thing also goes for online predators who like stalk people's profiles and use their information to track people down to their houses and so forth. Recent studies show the Facebook is the most recently used site for predators to find information on other people in order find their address so that they can rob their houses, murder people, or possibly rape their victims. Moreover, another creepy fact is that Google can track your information down as well especially your photos, so even if a predator do not use social websites they can still find information about you through other ways. However, that it does not happen very often at least recently that is, but it can happen to the one person who is not careful. Furthermore, people who are only social with other people on the Internet, do not often interact with people outside the computer. However, people can keep in contact and interact with their friends such as high school friends, or college friends, through social media like Facebook and Twitter.
In conclusion, is the possibilities of having an online friend beneficial for you or are there some downsides to it? Well it depends on how you look at it, whether it is good thing or a bad thing, but either way social media is still the number one thing people go on the Internet to do. Recent discoveries still show that people use the Internet to interact with other people not just through email, but through Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Instagram, and much more. However, there are still some setbacks that will make think twice about who you be friends with on social media. Firstly, online friends are not always reliable in the outside world than they were on the Internet. Lastly if you are not watchful of what you post, Internet or in which case social media can also turn from the most enjoyable hobby to do on the Internet into the most dangerous place for predators to seek ways of finding out your location and etc.
