What are the pros and cons of making friends online?
302 Answers
Last Updated: 06/19/2022 at 6:34pm
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Top Rated Answers
Pros: You get to know the person for who they are (or who they want to be) and vice versa - not a friendship based on looks or habits or common friends. It's also a safe place to spend time together and you don't need to travel far. Much like a pen pal without the stamps!
Cons: They might not always be completely honest, and the anonymity of being online might tempt you to act a little less honest sometimes as well. It can be difficult to interpret some sentences since text does not carry a tone to it, so sometimes intentions can be misunderstood.
Anonymous
November 4th, 2016 5:39am
Online is amazing when it comes to meeting new people but we sometimes forget the reality that comes this, a pro is having someone to talk to, but a con would be that ability to want to meet that certain person and at times, there can be trust issues in certain situations.
Anonymous
November 9th, 2016 8:53pm
The Pros are you will meet new people and you will have friends but the Con is some people online can not be trusted.
there are multiple pros and cons to making friends online, there is the fact that if/when you get anxious about meeting someone, you can just message them what you are afraid to say. but the distance can sometimes get hard once you get to know them.
Anonymous
November 13th, 2016 11:37pm
Making friends online is a nice experience, I discover their world, they discover mine, I think that we have a lot to learn to each other!
Making friends online is a lot easier than making friends
Offline. There is not much tension and not as much awkwardness. One of the biggest cons is that it is sometimes harder to meet with them and actually hang out.
Anonymous
November 17th, 2016 4:57pm
Sometimes making online friends can be easier than real life friends, in the sense that you feel more comfortable, or it's easier to be honest around them, because you can't necessarily see their exact response, instead, the response they choose to show. However, while these friendships can sometimes seem to be deeper, they are truly not, and are really hard to pursue over a life-long time.
Online you can find anyone, anywhere. You are not limited to who you can find in your general proximity. At the same time, that's a lot of people to sift through and decide who you want to tell what to. With unlimited possibility there is risk.
Having online communities of friends can be very helpful when you need to escape from your daily life or need a niche group of people. Safety online can be tricky. So always be careful, but you can always disconnect from people that you don't like.
Anonymous
February 18th, 2017 6:20pm
Making online friends is a good way to socialise when you're not able to talk to people in person. You know, like introverts are more likely to make friends online rather than talk to them in person.
However, sometimes you can get into stuff that's inappropriate. Some online people might be rude and may not be the best persons to make friends with.
We can never tell though. We need to be careful and cautious about making onlime friends.
One pro is that they are accessible, and that sometimes it is better than having no friend to talk to. The con is, that we are all made to have physical contact. We are all made to communicate through body language, through tone of voice, through facial expressions, through physical touch. Friends that can only be limited to online contact can only offer you so much intimacy and closeness in their friendship. Face-to-face friends are still the most important!
Anonymous
August 19th, 2017 8:15pm
Pros:
>you can easily match up personalities, likes, dislikes, and interests before everything else
>if anonymously chatting, then no judging based on appearances
>quite helpful for those with social anxiety and those who can't easily talk in real life
>a famous trend these days
Cons:
>easily fooled, scams everywhere
>you'll never be sure of what's real and what's not
>no verification of identity
>sometimes, the personality online is different from the one in real life
>unsafe
Anonymous
September 28th, 2017 6:45pm
Having online friends will help you feel less lonely because you will have someone to talk to and share your thoughts with, but sometimes online friends may be from somewhere far then you and they not be always available for conversations... sometimes it's worth the try though
everyone needs someone to chat to especially if your depressed or disabled stuck in alone but always be aware of the dangers dont give out any of your personal information, always keep yourself safe at all times.
you can meet lots of new cool people but you dont know if anything they say about themselves is true
The pros are that you can find people who truly care about you even without meeting you in real life and you can enjoy the same things and have long conversations without it being awkward. The cons is that they could live across the world so you may not get to meet them in real life and if you do meet them your idea of them could be skewed and you could have an awkward face-to-face conversation.
Anonymous
November 18th, 2017 6:54pm
Pros, there is comfort in knowing that you can leave anytime
cons, people may not be who they claim
Anonymous
November 19th, 2017 8:33pm
Cons:
-It’s usually easier for people to talk online
-You dont feel judge
-You normally open easier
Cons:
-You can feel bad if they dont reply you
-Its not good if you are suspicious
-You need to trust the other person
-
pros : you feel more confident coz no one can judge you accordingly to your face or the way you talk ...
you overcome shyness
you get to meet many different people from all around the world
cons : people can tell you what they want and you don't really have a way to check if they're just lying or not
could be dangerous (stealing personal informations, manipulation...)
Anonymous
November 23rd, 2017 6:32pm
Pros : you can find a really good friend online i believe online people don't lie or pretend cause they may not feel like as if they have to that's in general but some may use it and tell terrible lies. You get to be connected to friends all over the world people you may have never been blessed to meet in person so it's double. I believe you can have a true friend online
Cons are you cannot look them in the eye and you cannot give them a warm hug you cannot be there with them in person and being there with them in person is much bigger. You may also lose attach to reality whine in real life they are part of your life not just in a screen. If you didn't answer for days they would start to assume things but in reality life they will know how you are. And if you are going through something
Anonymous
December 2nd, 2017 4:54am
Pros: You have someone to talk to and you don't have to meet up with them.
Cons: It is a bit dangerous.
Making friends online can let you zero in on topics you both are interested in really quickly. You can feel more secure discussing more private feelings/issues. But making friends online also can be misleading/disguising in that, you only hear their words, without the nonverbal cues. You also only see a fragment of who they are (what they want you to see). They could also be hiding their true intentions.
Pros:
*You meet people from all over the world
*You can meet people with similar interests who you may not find in your real-life friend group
*You can talk to people without fears or judgement(in my experience at last)
*You can meet members of the LGBT+ community, who may form a minority in your area (again from personal experience)
Cons:
*Stranger danger
*You may have to encounter plenty of strange people and endure inappropriate conversations before meeting genuinely nice people
*Having internet friends might (being the keyword here) distance you from your non-virtual life
Pros are meeting great, normal, caring humans and developing intellectual relations.
Cons would be the catfish issue and deceit online.
Wow, this one's a tough one. You get to connect with anyone from different places.
>You can chat with them from distances.
>It makes you popular over social media.
>More friends means more likes, followers and comments. More notifications.
>You are able to socialize more and appeal with many people.
>It gives you a chance to become a celebrity in refer to the point of being popular.
Cons, however, is a lot compared to pros.
>People will see information or data about you, may be used as an advantage.
>Spammers.
>Connecting with some places is a drawback because of different timezone.
>I doubt that some people would even remain friends with who they added.
>Yes, getting a lot of followers warns that you can't always please everyone inside the internet.
Anonymous
December 17th, 2017 4:29pm
Sometimes it's easier to open up to people you've met through a screen, it's easier to talk to them about your problems or feelings, while you can't really do that in real life. But you also have to realize that even though they'll try to be there for you, it's kinda hard to do so physically, they can't give you a hug or just simply hang out with you whenever you want. Also it's nice to have a wider connection thingy, like you'll know more people and learn more about others' culture for example. It's easier to connect with people and find people with the same interest or personality.
Despite never meeting face to face, online friends can be the most genuine people we can meet. Online, we're no longer bound by cultural (geographical, work/school, family etc) norms, and are free to express our inner self.
However, online friends can be the most shallow since we're separated by a degree of anonymity and lack of societal pressure to commit to the relationship.
With a good amount of effort and healthy dose of caution, online friendship can me as meaningful (or more!) than offline friendship.
Anonymous
December 22nd, 2017 11:08pm
The pros of making friends online is that you can talk to more people than just the people around you and they will be able to support you if you can't get support from the peers around yourself, the cons are that you never know who that person may be, or their intentions.
Anonymous
December 23rd, 2017 4:46am
Some cons of making friends online is that they could always be fake as in personality and in looks and some pros is that you can always rely on someone you know will always hear you plus you can save your conversations
Pros: they are easy to communicate and most of the time they have really similar interests like you.
Cons: Most of the time they live really far away or they aren't what you think they truly are...
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