Blog 6

Yes, again too late, but still want to participate. I actually loved chapter 6 for one main reason; because I was one of those people who made friends online and actually followed through with it. At the time, many thought it was foolish to trust a complete stranger, and like the book states-these friendships are not really "friendships". It really kind of shocked me to see a whole section devoted to "what is a friend?". Well on the one hand, I understand you have to define something to make a claim about it, but on the other hand, I believe we all have our own definitions of friends anyway.

I was a member in a chat room online with thousands of users. I used it to socialize past my bed time. (I like not so many teenagers had sleeping issues). I was probably around the age of say 11 or 12. Someone was have a conversation in one of the rooms about a very controversial matter, and I decided to tell them my opinion. Eventually one of them began talking to me and we compromised on our points and just nodded to one another in having an opinion at all. We decided that this was something we like about one another-compromise. So we exchanged chat ids and went about our business. Later and a long story short, we talked everyday for a long time and she and I had become comfortable in confiding in each other. We eventually exchanged phone numbers, and even home addresses to send each other letters and cards. Five years later we still communicated on a very frequent basis, and I became old enough to travel alone. We decided that I should go to Colorado to visit her. My parents spoke to her parents over the phone and I flew on free flight miles to see someone I have never before seen in "real life". We had a blast and there was no awkwardness. We continued to be friends for 3 or 4 more years and I flew out there, and she drove here with her sister to visit me since we became such friends.

So it can happen, and it happens differently. So much like the chapter, relationships are affected tremendously in both good and bad ways through internet and other forms of technology.