Making Friends Online

Hello there,

We're all taught when little never to talk to strangers, even more so on the internet.  But how are we supposed to make friends if we don't talk to strangers, at one point in our lives the people we call friends have all been strangers and those conversations had whilst not really knowing them lead to a lovely friendship. So is talking to strangers so bad?  Ok on the internet we have to be super careful, the people we think we're talking to may in fact be someone completely different, is it worth the risk?

I began talking to a girl called Ameerah 4(ish) years ago when I was added into a BBM group that she was apart off.  Everyone in the group all got along and added each other, I talked to many of the girls in the group and thought it was great that you could make friends from different places. I carried on talking to Ameerah where the other people seemed to fade away and we became friends.  Then it was time to say goodbye to the shitty blackberry I had for a new phone meaning no more BBM.  Luckily we had each other on Twitter and talked regularly through there before we gave each other our numbers.   Since then we have talked pretty much everyday and I now regard her as one of my best friends, we talk about anything and everything and its great to know you have a friend there for you even though they are 200 or so miles away.

Now I know what your thinking how can you be sure she says who she says she is? And that's true, if it hadn't have been for us Skyping and face timing each other I might still be asking myself that after watching Catfish.  But I'm pretty sure she is in fact Ameerah and not some random guy preying on girls.  I am that sure that Ameerah is Ameerah that I am hopefully going to meet her next year as kind of my 21st birthday celebrations. I cant wait to meet this person that I have so much in common with and who has always been there and to actually get to know her more.  I can only imagine it will be a fun filled trip as we are meeting kind of half way in London, a place I've always wanted to go too.

And who knows maybe I'll meet the other friends I've made online someday?

Leigh x