The Importance Of You.

[maidofawesome]

I want to post this entry that I wrote very late on Tuesday night. It's not for you. Any of you, I mean, I'm not pointing out any of you specifically. It's for the people who don't get you. For the people who don't understand the point of an online friendship, the fact that it's not just textspeak and words on a screen and nitpicking Buffy episode

Comments

[lennypops]

I agree with everything you have just said. And I'm probably one of the more 'internet-ty' out of my current friends.

Trying to explain a closeness when you've never spoken in person is so difficult. I think you're either part of it and love it, or you're not.

Still, I love you for writing this and for who you and and for what you're saying for Sherrie.

*hugs*

[faithx5]

That was beautiful, and so, so true. I'm definitely going to link it from...everywhere, really. Thank you for putting down in words what I've always thought and meant to say--and a lot better than I probably would have said it.

{{hugs}}

[the_ladylark]

*applause*

Well said.

I do sometimes pause and stumble before replying when people ask me 'how did you meet your boyfriend?'. Though technically we didn't 'meet on the internet', it was due to an internet group that we shared the same group of friends and were at that particular gathering.

Do you mind if I link to this post?

[maidofawesome]

No, it's fine, feel free. I left it unlocked for a reason.

[austin154]

I am so sorry for the loss that you and so many others are going through since this happened. I was enjoying meeting alot of you for the first time at the Beta during the 10th Anniversary, and then this happened so I really am at a loss for words. I don't know any of the group going through this well, but I understand exactly what you mean about internet friends being just as valid as the friends you run into face to face. I also understand the shame and stigma. When I first heard about what happened, I thought, "ya know, if anything happened to me, no one in my off-line world would even know my online friends existed." And that is a shame because many of the people I know online are better than the ones I know offline.

The people offline know me for "who" I am while the people online know me for who I "am." If that makes sense.

I'm going to link to this because it may help people to read.

[idreamofpeace]

Yeah. Exactly. I haven't told anyone how I "met" her. Because then they would say "oh, she's not really a friend." And that is so wrong.

[scourgeoe]

this, i kinda understand what you mean.

i've been really stuggling to work my shifts, and both my boss and members of staff have turned round and asked me 'why?' despite the fact that i've told them i'd lost my friend. In my boss' case, its because she knows she's an 'internet'friend. which i find heartless but its purely out of ignorance. It still really upset me though. Because you're right, its not at all right for them to say or even think that.