Essay Sample: Pros and Cons of Making Friends Online

Can people make genuine friends online? In the blog “Social Media, Pretend Friends, and the Lie of False Intimacy” they state “The number of “inboxes” we possess is staggering: Email (3 accounts for me), public Twitter, Twitter DM, public Facebook, Facebook messages, Facebook chat, Linkedin messages, public Google +, Google + messages, blog comments, Skype, text messages, Instagram, phone, voice mail, and several topically or geographically specific forums, groups, and social networks. That’s a lot of relationship bait in the water.” which shows that people have a lot of apps and they still have a lot more friendships, although you don't know for sure who you're actually talking to, that doesn't mean people can't make genuine friends online. Studies have proven that online social networks make you more social, and unlike offline you can have friends from different parts of the world, and because you are behind a screen you can be whoever they want to be which could help them create more realistic friendships.

Furthermore, according to a newspaper article by Graeme McMillan on June 16, 2011 “A new study from the Pew Research Center has found that online social networks actually seem to make people more social. (24)” which could help people gain more friends compared to the number of friends offline. Sometimes people have trouble creating friends offline because of the embarrassment of approaching someone, which could make them lonely and feel bad thinking they are an outcast. Some people until their adulthood don’t have friends because of the embarrassment they had. Also, many people in this day and age have social anxiety which could prevent them from having or approaching friends, while behind a screen would help and boost their confidence a lot because they are not in person.

Thus, as the Magazine Article by Sally Arthur claims “You can even become friends with someone who lives in a different part of the world”(27). A majority of people around the world have access to social media which gives you a great chance to talk to them. There are even specific apps made, so you can talk to someone from a different country and they can teach you many things about their culture and country. This not only lets people become more educated on what’s going on around them but also lets them meet new people. Some people don't have the ability to travel to different countries or continents and make friends and they have an easier chance of making friends online from different countries.

Regardless, as Sally Arthur mentions in Making Friends Through The Internet “One major disadvantage of making friends online is that you do not always know if people are who they say they are”(pg 27). Sally Arthur has a great point that people should take into consideration when making friends online. People never know if the person is who they claim they are online because just like them that person can lie about many things and that person can be talking to a completely different person than they are “claiming” to be which could be dangerous. However, this can be the same for offline friendships as well. People can make up and let you imagine a completely different life just like they would do online. Just because they see these people face to face doesn’t mean they are who they claim to be.

Subsequently, you can make friends online. If you have common sense, making online friends can be valuable. People just have to communicate well and make sure the person they are talking to is genuine. Also one day online friends can become offline friends. People might never know if they are talking to a genuine friend but people, in general, don’t know who they are talking to offline as well. People don’t need to have a lot of online friends but a lot of online friends could help people educate themselves on how to be safer online and teach them a life lesson.