Online Friendships

Online friendship is making friends an e-way. Some of them do turn to life long friends and some are short terms but on the way there are some things, which
should be taken care of, to make the bonds strong. A mixed experience in online friendship has pushed me to write on little things you should be careful of and certain disciplines which you need to take care while things are shaping up.

Before going on to things which one should do, let’s talk about something one should avoid doing : [The DO NOT DO things]

1. Do not email your photographs in the first few chats/exchange of messages only. Danger of them getting misused is more than actual expectations. I have pics on my social networking site but I don’t play ‘Lets share the pics’ game while talking to anyone who I don’t know in person.

2. Do not ever commit to anything online. It’s not a game being played . Don’t make promises of going for a holiday, marriage and all that stuff even if you are sure that the other person is your only one. Meet before you say anything.

3. Don’t be a starter always. Give other person the chance to reciprocate. Online friendship is one thing which needs equal communication to flow from both ends else the age of friendship doesn’t last long.

4. Don’t share any personal details until the trust factor is established among you both. It takes time and let the time pass to start believing in the friendship.

Little time for looking at things you should do while you are having online friends [the DO list]:

1.Be completely honest. If you are looking for honesty from other side, the same holds true for him/her as well. It doesn’t means to share things in and out but maintain a level of disclosing your life and let that portion is true share. Sometimes online friendship go long so in that case, sharing an honest part always helps.

2.Never ever share your passwords/ bank account details or credit card details just because you have started trusting the other person.

3.Always be clear of your expectations. You might just be looking for a normal friendship but the other side might be eyeing for a long term relationship so make sure both of you have clarity of thoughts on your expectations from each other as friends.

4.Confidence is the key. Your shy nature might be the reason of target for any person to fool you around. Be confident while you talk. Since you are not meeting in person its always better to take some time and then reply.

Are you meeting him/her?

Once the level of comfort develops, both would wish to meet and share thoughts offline. No doubt it’s a great way to move from world of online friends to real but be careful before meeting.

1.Make sure before meeting , you have been in conversation for some times. And its always great to talk over phone for some conversations before actually moving to meeting in real. The conversation over the phone would create the level of easiness when you meet for first time.
2.Try not to go alone, for first one-two meets. You might have a common friend or just a trusted friend who can go along with you and you can make him/her part of meeting and not just the point of security for you. There is nothing embarrassing about this.

3.Your first few meeting places should be public places like Coffee Bars, Restaurants, Market places or any malls. Never have your first meetings at secluded place for it may backfire and put you in questionable situation.

4.Stay Connected : Its good to have phone on silent mode but never put it off coz its disturbing your meeting. You make sure you are connected to the world while you are meeting.
5.Never think you are too smart or never show over excitement to meet. This might give a wrong impression on the other side.

I suppose this is more than required list of do’s and don’t to maintain long lasting online friendships.

Cheerz.!!