I have been online for about 7 years now. I remember when we first got our computer I didn't want to download any messengers or anything where you would interact with strangers. I had always just heard that it can be very dangerous.
I'm not sure what changed my mind but I do remember one day deciding I would do a search to see if there were any disabled chat rooms that I could go in and just talk to people. I felt like that would be better then just talking to a stranger one on one. The Disabilities-R-Us chat room was the first one I saw when I did the search so I went in there. It was a God send for me and I have never looked back. A few years ago I did stop going in there for about a year because I was going through so much health wise that I was feeling like I was doing nothing but bringing people down.
Once I started making friends in the chat room I ended up wanting to talk to people more and get to know people so that started the messengers. I now have 3 messengers and the amount of people I talk to on them is different every day. Sometimes I have allot of people to talk to then some days there isn't hardly anybody around. I still also go to the chat room and as far as I am concerned I will go there til the day I die.
What I am finding though is most people that I know, family included that doesn't spend alot of time on the computer doesn't seem to understand how I can get so close to people I have never met. That is something that is so easy for me to explain. When you are talking to the same people every day and sometimes for hours at a time, it just comes natural. You start feeling like you can confide in these people that you talk to every day.I also feel more comfortable with the fact that they can't see me, so that way they don't get turned off right away.
I have some wonderful friends online that I will probably never get to meet in my lifetime (I can still hope and pray to though) but they have been there for me more then anybody else even family.
I have friends that when I am in the hospital they will call me every day to just check on me and keep me company. They have even called me here at home to make sure I am ok because I wasn't online at a time I usually am. Once, when I was recovering from surgery and had to spend about 6 weeks at my moms, I wasn't able to get on the computer. That was pure torture for me, but I had a friend that would call me every day at moms and would keep me informed of everything going on and just to keep me company so I wouldn't feel so isolated and depressed. My friends will never know how much their love and support means to me.
I know, everything on the net isn't a great thing. There are some people out there you have to be really careful about but so far my experience has been a great one. I'm not totally stupid, I can pretty much tell when I need to stay away from somebody. Luckily I have had more good experiences then bad ones.
I feel like I have an extended family and I just don't see why people can't just understand.....
Take Care and God Bless,
Bev