No doubt that the Internet has changed everything; you don't have to meet someone physically before you have genuine friends who will do good things for you. This era we are in, it is possible to have friends all over the world; it doesn't have to be in your area, it can be anywhere. Sometimes online friends are the real deal to have; they add lots of value, and they help a lot.
I have seen people get jobs online and get paid for what they know how to do. Online will give you lots of connections, and if you haven't seen them before, in as much as they trust you, then you are good to go. As of yesterday I was scrolling on one web2 social media, and there is this challenge: one lady is doing a guy happened to be in that challenge. All he did was just to catch a cruise before we knew it. The lady loved what the guy was doing, and they became friends; they had to meet physically.
In the world we are now, opportunities come a lot more online than offline, especially if you are an introvert; you don't have anything to do with the offline because of how shy you can be. Back in some years back I met some friends on Hive whose relationship is still intact as we speak. They have absolutely changed my life for good. I will use this Hive platform as an example. I only met one person that connects me online, and I got to know about Hive, and believe me, till today we are still together.
The good part is I don't think there's anyone that can teach you how to make good things that can earn you some money offline, and they will not charge you big time, but I met some friends on Hive that showed me ways to do a lot of things without once telling me to bring money. As if that wasn't enough, I met Merit online on this platform, to be precise, and we became friends—I mean, genuine friendship. At a point she got to know I sell gadgets, and she ordered laptops from me. I delivered it to her, but the question is, she wasn't scared I could run away with her money because obviously we haven't met before. The level of trust is so alarming. We have been friends for four years to date.
I have met more good friends online than I met offline; I'm not saying offline friends are bad. But there are a lot of
opportunities in having offline friends, which I have benefited from.
Although one thing that makes people fear online friends is that there is no privacy as we think it is, this is because everything is transparent online; the chat can even be hacked and leaked out. Even while having a private conversation, it can be recorded, and so on like that. So people get to be scared about online friendships so they don't have to be hacked or say something they should not have said.
We have seen people's nudes online in the name of trusting their friends and so on. This in a way removed trust from the online friendships. Apart from that, online friends are very good.
However, there's no doubt that offline friends can also go a very long way; sometimes how you feel matters, and you will need a physical person to explain how you are feeling. Having offline friends that you can meet at any time when you have a problem is also very important; anything can happen to online friends. You can lose contact or even lose the way you communicate in one way or the other.
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