Making friends online is it a good or bad thing?

As I've finished University for the summer I am spending more time on my xbox. Now I'll admit that this can seem anti social, however I wouldn't say that this was an anti social hobby. Most of the time I end up meeting lots of different people all over the UK as well as the rest of the world. Being a girl on xbox I do attract more attention from people which isn't always a good thing. I mean sometimes people can be really mean (unecessarily so) and for anybody that would ruin your game for you.

Now I'm not saying it's easy to make friends. Being a girl I can attract the wrong people and obviously I want to play with people around my age rather than 11/12 year olds who (no offence) but they can be slightly immature. After persevering I will soon find some lovely people, not necessarily my age, however they do become friends. It's strange to think that a friendship can be made just from talking to someone for a few hours. Although I have learnt so much this summer about friends who live near me to the ones who live far away from me. I know the people far away from me would do anything to help me if I needed it. Just talking without being judged is such a lovely change and I can't tell you how much I care for the people I have met on there.

I understand and I am cautious about the risks of meeting people online. However I fully believe that the world around us is changing and meeting people online is becoming a more common thing to do. It's no longer considered a 'taboo' subject, however it does not mean we should stop thinking of risks that may be involved. I have met people in person who I've met online before, but I didn't without a friend being there with me or telling somebody about it and letting them meet them as well. I am 'for' meeting people online, but I can't stress enough how careful you must be and you need to make sure you check out who you're talking to!

So yeah I guess I think making friends online is a good thing. In doing this I've found so many like minded people who have become friends that hopefully will stay with me for a lifetime. I do plan to see a lot of these friends it's just finding the time to travel!

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan