However, despite the circumstances that keep my out of the real world for the most part, I don’t think that I am out of the ordinary in the least in my search for online friendship. After all, there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of online friendship websites on the internet just thriving with people signing up looking for online friendship. Ranging from regional forums to online matchmaking sites to business and interest forums, online friendships might just be getting to be more common than actual face-to-face friendships in this world.
My best online friend ever lives a couple of thousand miles from me, and I met her in a support group online. The support group is no longer something that we have in common, but it doesn’t matter in the least. Finding an online friend might have been the entire reason I joined a support group to begin with. As it turns out me and my online friend have quite a bit in common and have plenty to talk about besides the medical issues that brought us both to that group to begin with.
So what are the things that I get out of the friendship with her? What is it that makes being her friend so easy? Well, for one, we have really similar religious views, or rather a complete lack of religious beliefs would be more accurate. That one issue alone, religion, seems to be a big obstacle or hindrance to online friendship. But if you’re on the same page with religion your online friendship has a better chance of surviving. Over the last ten years of trying to find online friendships and watching forums and groups come and go, I’ve noticed that religion remains to be an enormous thorn in people’s sides. Either there’s too much or too little, too much emphasis or not enough. Whatever the balance, religion, when it is a priority online, leaves little wiggle room for real friendship to take root. Me and my best online friend ever, we have a pretty good understanding of how we feel about religion, lack thereof, and so we see eye to eye on something most people can’t.
Another thing we have in common is that we both love parrots. People who love parrots seem to be fanatics for the lovely smart-alec critters, and parrot lovers are usually good for a lot of laughs. So me and my online friend have that also. Parrots and laughs. We swap stories, share ideas, and as the little critters grow, we grow right with them. We have change in our friendship, centered around a positive growing thing in our lives.
And then, in addition to all that, my best online friend ever doesn’t care about how many times a day I email her or don’t email her, what time I email her. Someone who doesn’t mind hearing from you any time of day or night makes you feel like there’s a big welcome sign hanging out just for you, to just stop on by any time you like. And that is a very very good feeling. My best online friend ever will drop me a line back every time also, so I never feel like I’m wearing out my welcome. And, very importantly, she makes me laugh and laughs with me. Also, cries with me too. I guess it’s because she’s a real friend and I know it, because she seems to share the good and the bad alike with me. And that’s what friendships are all about.