The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
As those who read Monday’s post, Online Friends: Can They Be “Real” Friends?, know, the blog world is celebrating #NicheAmnesty this week, thanks to Stacey, whose amazing #NicheAmnesty blog post, My Whole Life is Niche Amnesty, will make you want to drop everything and move to Bali (but please vote in today’s poll before you depart on your flight).
#NicheAmnesty celebrates the strength of online friendships and seeks to enhance these friendships by encouraging blog authors to write about themselves. As I completely endorsed Stacey’s stroke of genius, I participated in #NicheAmnesty with gusto by writing about myself, as difficult as that proved to be.
Monday’s post spurred dozens of comments by Wonder of Tech readers who shared their thoughts on online friendships. Many readers have had the immense pleasure of making strong friendships online. Others believed that you have to meet people face-to-face to be true friends.
I highly recommend you read other #NicheAmnesty articles that have been posted this week (you can find links in the Comments section of Monday’s blog). The articles were creative, touching, inspirational, and fun!
What has your experience been with online friendships? Have you made true friends online? Did your online friends only become true friends after you met them in the real world? Let us know what your thoughts are in the poll below.
When I told friends and family that I was going to start a blog, they were concerned that I would be subject to nasty comments posted by massive flamers, trolls and critics online who like nothing better than to attack writers. Instead, I have been pleasantly shocked at the support I have received from the warm and welcoming blogging community. They all understand the challenges of launching a blog and have offered continuous support to me in the six months I’ve been writing this blog. I believe I have made many true online friends since launching The Wonder of Tech.
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Paying It Forward – Christian Hollingsworth
One of the amazing friends I have made online is Christian Hollingsworth, a truly impressive 20 year old whose blog, Smart Boy Designs, offers advice and insights to bloggers and small businesses. Christian’s list of experiences would lead you to believe he is much older than his 20 years, but he has made the most of his time by spending the last ten years as a web site designer, Eagle Scout, volunteer, sled dog trainer, valedictorian of his high school class and opera singer. I will add poet because of the quality of the writing on his five year old blog, Smart Boy Designs.
Christian was recently nominated for the 2011 Small Business Influencers Award in honor of his blog Smart Boy Designs and how he has helped small businesses grow. But he needs votes from others to win this well-deserved award.
I have timed how long it takes to vote for Christian. If you click on this link:
2011 Small Business Influencer Award
and vote for Christian, it should take you less than 5 seconds (depending on the speed of your Internet connection). Even better, you can vote for him once every twenty-four hours! Twelve days are left for voting which gives you twelve opportunities to vote for this special man.
If you want to check out his amazing blog, which I suggest you do, click here: Smart Boy Designs. His enthusiasm for life and generosity of spirit shine through in each of his posts. Please consider voting for Christian and helping an inspirational young man to win the recognition he richly deserves.
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Did your online friendships only blossom when you met in person? Are you opposed to making friends online? Do you struggle with this issue with your children? Please share with us your experiences with online friendships in the Comments section below.
* Image by Zach Dischner
** Image by Jerry Kirkhart
*** Image by Wesley Fryer (who does have friends)
**** Image by Christian Hollingsworth
I have certainly made good friends on line mostly via community of interest discussions, e.g. movies (like people tend to have like tastes and similar backgrounds as time might reveal).
Also, online friends who were acquaintances before can be improved by more exchanges than might be physically possible with face to face contact due to distance, work, family, etc.
On the other hand one must be very careful and at the slightest evidence of deviancy probably it’s the time to drop that friend.
Hi Lee, You’re 100% correct, friendships can be enhanced online but it’s very important not to strike up (or continue) friendships with unsavory characters. If you see signs that a person is untrustworthy, it’s best to end the friendship.
Thanks, Lee, for your visit and comment!
Well you know how I feel about this subject. Love this post and continuing this wonderful message Carolyn.
I truly believe that a lot of my online friends mean just as much, if not more to me than my offline ones. The bond and the connection that a lot of us have found has not only be a fun experience but an eye opener as well. It’s given us the opportunity to connect with people we would have never had an opportunity to meet.
I met a girl 24 years ago that was my roommate on a cruise. She lives in Canada and although I haven’t seen her since, we are still friends today. We write, email and call each other. I send her daughter a gift each year for her birthday and cards on a regular basis. She means the world to me even if we don’t get to see each other.
Friendships are to be treasured even if we don’t live close. That I have truly learned with time.
Thank you for sharing this and for encouraging your readers to participate in the voting for Christian. I know we are all going to be celebrating very soon.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I completely agree with you about friendship. And what a special friendship you have with your cruise roommate! That’s so wonderful how you stayed connected for so many years.
Thank you for inspiring me to include Christian in an article to help spread the word. You and Janet got the ball rolling and I’m just trying to give it a forward push as we head into the home stretch. We should definitely have a virtual party if/when he wins!
Adrienne, your visit, inspirational comment and tweets are greatly appreciated! 🙂
I like the photo at the top. I’ll go and read these articles while I have a little time. I need some inspiration to write a blog for tomorrow. I am thinking about making a video but the light isn’t really good enough today. I’m about to go through the 20,000 page views barrier and I think that is reasonable considering I have been building it up over 5 months. I think I have a name for my self-hosted blog too! I’ll check the name hasn’t gone and consider buying the domain and web space. I wrote a guest blog yesterday and that resulted in me being invited to join something to do with freelance writing and so it must have been good!
Wow, Mike, 20,000 hits in under five months is great, but I’m not surprised. You have something for everyone in your blog!
If you have a moment, between writing your daily blog post, taking amazing pictures, writing a guest post, photographing a wedding and moving your blog, please do read the other articles linked from Monday’s comments. You won’t be disappointed!
Thank so much, Mike, for your visit, fantastic comment and tweet! 🙂
I’m not sure this scenario fits the definition of “online friends,” but my experience has been that people I do not know well or have not seen in decades (such as high school classmates) friend me on Facebook and then we end up engaging in great conversations and become better friends than we ever were way back when. Does that count?
Hi Kathy, I love connecting on Facebook with old friends I haven’t seen in decades and probably wouldn’t have connected with if it weren’t for Facebook! As a matter of fact, a Wonder of Tech subscriber is a dear friend from high school I reconnected with on Facebook.
I say friends always count, no matter where you met them, so vote however you want. There is no wrong answer in Wonder of Tech polls! 🙂
Thanks so much, Kathy, for your visit and thought-provoking comment.
Well i would go with the 2nd option. I guess once you meet someone face to face you met online, that brings friendship to the next level..
Hi Karan, Yes, it’s interesting when you meet someone you knew online in person, it can take that relationship to a new level. I’m wondering though, in these days of Skype, Facebook video calling and Google+ hangouts, if online friendships can be closer than they were before.
Thanks so much, Karan, for your visit, thoughtful comment and tweet! 🙂
The thing w/ online friendships you are more apt to be in contact w/ them much more frequently than most real life friends.
Also, I think online people tend to get a little deeper about who they are, what is going on in their lives, etc that you might not share in real life casual conversations.
Does that make sense?
Hi Bill, That makes perfect sense! Sometimes people feel more comfortable revealing their true selves to the people they think they won’t ever have to face in person.
And you’re right, if you’re online a lot, it can be easier to stay in touch with your online friends by posting on Facebook, emailing, chatting, Skyping, etc.
Thanks so much, Bill, for your visit and sensible comment! 🙂
So, reading between the lines, did you mean ‘non-silly’ for a change…………..:).
Lol, no, I meant that your comment made sense. You did ask if it made sense. 😉 I don’t expect anyone to be silly all the time…
I agree Bill, With real friends in few years time you start depending on them for all kinds of emotional supports, but with online friends there are no such emotional bindings, you talk, you discuss, you think and then you are back on your own.. i love these kind of bondings
Hi James, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, there are all kinds of friendships, both on and off line. Friendships are guided by how close you want to be to someone, how much you reveal and how much effort you put into the relationship.
I do believe that online relationships can have emotional bonding, though it’s rarer than with real life friends.
Thanks so much, James, for your visit and your awesome comment!
Hi Carolyn. I love that you are continuing the #nicheamnesty energy here and the cool idea to run a pole…dang, why did I not think of that, lol. The interaction I saw and continue to see going on with people; has been so warm open and friendly..especially when you take the spirit of pay it forward and encourage others to support Christian. When I realise how much this man has achieved in his young years, I feel positively lazy, lol. Have a great weekend
Pole or poll Stacey; are you thinking about your pole dancing days again?…………..:). Luv ya Stacey………….:)
Bill, I am certain Stacey was referring to her days in the fire brigade in England. Where is your mind? 😉
Thanks for brightening our days here! 😀
Nope Bill was right..I got started on a pole of the far less “life saving kind”. However.. it was great practice for my 2 year stint in the fire brigade. When they saw what I could do with one leg, 4 inch heels and a little baby oil…I was offered the job on the spot. Just call me fire marshall Stacey.
PS..sorry for corrupting your comments with all this cheeky innuendo, this is a professional establishment, lol
Oh oh….trust Mr D…to remind me of my pole dancing days…hey I’m not ashamed..I made me a whole lotta money on that pole, lol
*Mental dialogue: so you call yourself a writer huh..well your spelling officially sucks!*
Good news, Stacey, you don’t lose points for spelling here at The Wonder of Tech!
Silly me, I figured the red hat was from your fire brigade days, Fire Marshall Stacey. 😉
Your comments are always welcome here, corrupt or not! 🙂
My apologies, Bill! I should have known better, you were just being nostalgic! 😉
Hi Stacey, I loved the energy that #NicheAmnesty brought, both to the blogosphere and to my blog. There was so much discussion on The Wonder of Tech on Monday that I wanted to give another opportunity for people to voice their opinions. The results of the poll are very even with those who believe strongly in online friendships, those who think they flourish only when people meet in person and those who don’t think the friendships are real at all.
Thank you so much for starting the #NicheAmnesty experiment. It’s a smashing success!
Yes, Christian is an amazing man who has accomplished so much in his young life. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him!
Stacey, I appreciate your visit, kind comment, and wonderful tweets! 🙂
Incredibly imagery. Thanks, Christian Hollingsworth.
As for the poll, I have to say that I find the results a bit disturbing, that 37.5% would respond that their online friends mean as much, if not more, than their real friends. This tells something about technology taking the place of real life. Of how we communicate with a much larger group of people, and meet friends we would never have otherwise, but we may be less interested in making or keeping “real-life” friends. I have to admit having fallen into this category and ignoring my friends in favor of online ones. I do not agree that you get deeper online than personally but that depends on each individual’s experience. To me, nothing can take the place of a good old face-to-face (and not video camera) get-together with a friend or friends where you can actually see, feel, hear, share, and imbibe the essence of the friendship.
Hi Penelope, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I have to agree with your opinion, specifically on the importance of preserving and nurturing real-life friendships. When I moved to England for 3 1/2 years, my real-life friendships became online friendships and I made real-life friends in England. Now the friends I made in England are online friends and my friends back here in the US are real-life friends again.
Some people become a combination of real-life and online friends. We see them in person, but keep up with them online at times through Facebook, email, etc.
Penelope, thanks so much for your visit and thoughtful comment. I especially loved the phrase “imbibe the essence of friendship.” Brilliant!
Carolyn, aloha. Absolutely love #NicheAmensty and your poll. Very interesting results. Though it would have made the poll too complicated, it would have been interesting to know how long the respondents had been online and if they blog/comment.
Carolyn, I believe that people who blog and comment create fantastic relationships because of what they reveal about themselves. Oftentimes I am amazed by what I say online as well as what others say in the comments section. (Actually, I wrote a post about that which received some terrific comments.)
Since you “found” me because of our special mutual Adrienne Smith, you already know that I think Christian is absolutely fantastic. Carolyn, we definitely have to get the vote out for him because he has slipped to 2nd place. Love the voting system on that site because it is so quick and easy.
Carolyn, I love that Stacey is looking at further developing #NicheAmensty through a video question to which we will respond in the comments section. Should be fun, don’t you think?
Thx so much for this terrific post. Until next time, aloha. Jaent
Hi Janet, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you enjoyed the poll and #NicheAmnesty. I like your suggested questions. I had many ideas about what to ask this week regarding online friends and #NicheAmnesty: How old is your longest online friendship? Have you ever met an online friend in person? Were they serial killers? etc. So many good questions! Feel free to use one if you ever want to conduct a poll on The Natural Networker.
I completely agree with you about the blogging community! I did not anticipate all of the support I have received from fellow bloggers when I started The Wonder of Tech. What a delightful surprise. 😀
You and Adrienne got Christian off to a great start with voting, I just wanted to keep the ball rolling. We’re headed into the home stretch now so I hope people keep voting for him!
I am very excited about NicheAmnesty.tv. I sent Stacey some suggestions last night (only because she asked for them). Can’t wait to see what she has in store!
Thanks so much, Janet, for your visit and brilliant comment! So happy to have you here at The Wonder of Tech!
Luckily, yes! I was able to find good friends online. Until now, they are still my friends. Actually, they seem to know me more better than my friends around me. Maybe the connection is something different.
Hi Samantha, Yes, if you check in often online, you can stay in touch very well with your online friends. Just be sure to nurture your real life friendships too!
Thanks so much, Samantha, for your visit and wonderful comment! 🙂
I’m guilty of not constantly communicating with my real friends so far because I’m too busy with my online and other offline activities. I hope everything I could cope up soon. Anyway, my friends do understand me why I wasn’t able to be with them as often as I could.
Hi Samantha, I’m sure your real world friends will understand for a while, but make sure you nurture your real life friendships because they are very important! 🙂
I don’t believe in online friends unless I already have met him/her personally…We have to be careful always…
Hi Cher, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You are very wise to think that way. When my younger daughter saw the title to this blog post she said, “Mom, we’re not supposed to meet strangers online! That goes against everything we learned in school!”
You and she are correct. It’s important to be very careful in life and online.
Thanks so much, Cher, for your visit and sage comment! 🙂
I can’t really say that because I don’t have a friend online and someitmes, I don’t trust it…
Hi Thomas, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I know plenty of wonderful friends who don’t make online friends. They’re very social but they just don’t connect with others online. I’m not sure yet what makes some people connect online while others don’t but it does fascinate me.
Thanks so much, Thomas, for your visit and intriguing comment!
I don’t think it is a good idea to meet a friend online…They are not trusted…
Hi Andy, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I hope my children agree with you. It can be quite unsafe to meet people online. There is a woman in Aruba who is missing, perhaps because she met someone online. It’s so important to be careful.
Thanks so much, Andy, for your visit and brilliant comment!
Hi Carol…There are a lot of incidents reported that ladies are being rape because of meeting strangers online…They were abused and even being killed…It is really not safe…
Hi Robin, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I completely agree. There is a woman missing in Aruba now who met a man online and went on vacation with him. Meeting people online is a very dangerous prospect.
Thanks for the important reminder, Robin.