I Met them Online: The Phenomenon of "Internet Friends"

A/N: The following is an article I wrote for the Spyglass magazine. 

Here at RHHS, the clubs are almost as diverse as the students themselves. With an eclectic selection ranging from the award-winning debate team, the talented singers of Vocal Fusion, and the future astronomers of RASA, we like to believe that our school has something for everyone. Sadly, this is not the case. Like other schools, RHHS has kids who feel like they don’t belong anywhere. It can be really hard to find friends who share similar interests if your thing happens to be dumpster diving, soap carving, didgeridoo music or some other “niche” hobby. Fortunately, there’s a quick and easy solution for anyone who is tired of not being able to find a community to be a part of: the internet.

Many teens are turning to forums, online chatrooms and social media hoping to fill the void of loneliness they feel. It seems that humans naturally crave love and acceptance, and they will stop at nothing to seek it out. People who watch obscure animes may lurk on fanfiction websites to read scenarios that they imagine their favourite characters in. Sites like DeviantArt with millions of page views a day are full of drawings posted by dedicated consumers of various books, movies, and tv shows. While the idea of a person who has “internet friends” used to conjure up images of a shady loner hunched over a computer in a dimly-lit basement, meeting people online is now becoming more commonplace. In a 2015 study conducted by Pew Research Centre, 57% of teens reported making a new friend on social media. These relationships aren’t even limited to mere friendship. With the rise of dating apps like Tinder, it is estimated that one-fifth of all committed relationships begin online. People who once thought they were “forever alone” now realize that it’s easier to meet “the one” than ever before.  

Yet not all internet communities revolve around making friends or obsessing over fictional characters. Unfortunately, the internet has also given a voice to strange cults and extremist political organizations looking to lure in young and impressionable teens. Today’s youth are more prone than ever to become victims to internet predators, and the main method that predators use to win over their prey’s trust is by making teenagers feel less lonely. The victims are then convinced that without internet friends, they would have no friends at all. This means that if parents are worried about keeping their children safe online, the solution is not to ban internet friends in general. What teenager actually listens to their parents anyway? Instead, it is to provide enough love and affection to their child. By providing a means for adolescents to pursue their hobbies and accept their own flaws, parents will be ensuring that their children won’t have to seek validation from peers or strangers on the internet.

As the world becomes more interconnected, cynics point out all the ill-effects of social media and how they are supposedly leading the world into a dark time. But there’s always a bright side. We must remember that if a person can cheer up a stranger who is having a bad day in a distant country, the world is probably better because of it.