Online Friends

[Grandma Helen]

I know many of us have gotten to know people online.  Some we get closer with than others.  How many of you have met some of  your online friends in person or taken communication to your regular email or phone calls?  Have you ever met up with your online friends?  I know it can be hard with us all living far apart, but I'm curious.

[Johnnieboy]

Actually yes. I have a lady friend and we talk and play games together constantly. I just wish we had met 40 years earlier. We are perfectly matched in so many ways. (She is married now)

[Grandma Helen]

Johnnieboy, I have a friend and we did meet almost 50 years ago and lost touch (damn it) and he's married too.  We're really good friends after reconnecting on classmates.com in 2006. 

[Karin M Fichtner]

The very first month I joined Eons, I met a guy who lives in West Texas.  He had attended college in Milwaukee, where I went to school.  We emailed for a while, and then graduated to phone calls.  Hardly a week goes by without us talking for at least an hour.  I don't have money to travel there, and he has back problems, and doesn't travel well, so we probably won't ever meet.  Like Johnnie.....I wish we had met long ago.....because he and I are two peas in a pod.  We have been friends now for 6 years.   So goes life.

I met two ladies way back then that I still keep in touch with, and one Eon pal who came through here last year and spent a week.  We went sight-seeing and had a lot of fun.  We still text each other several times a week. 

Every now and again, I "meet" someone online that I think I could enjoy talking to......but I seldom initiate anything.  If I'm offered an email address, I accept, but seldom use them, as I don't wish to be a pest.  It would be nice to be able to actually talk to someone....even if it were just on the phone.  But people are hesitant to give out numbers, and I understand why.  So I guess this will just have to do. 

[Woody Woods]

I have many so-called 'online' friends and have met a couple in person. And I've become good friends with them. But....my closes friends are the ones I've know for 20 plus years...off line. They are the ones who know me the best and who I consider like and extended family. They are the ones who were there to support me when I needed support and I was there for them when they needed support. We have grown together. I've watched their kids grow into adulthood. We've laughed together, cried together. Those friends cannot be replaced...and I love them all. And they're all over the country. For me....'online' friends are nice, and if you meet face to face...can turn into a true friendship. But there's something about online friends that seem imaginary to me also. You imagine what that person may look like. Even though you may have seen pictures, are they up to date pictures...pictures of the actual person?? Are the words you read a true insight into that persons mind and thoughts. Are they telling the truth?? I guess I'm a physical person. I like looking into a persons eyes, see their smile, hear their voice, watch their reaction. These are the things that lets me determine if the person is honest, real, sincere. And it also lets the other person determine that of me too. Those that I have met online and also met face to face....we have become very good friends. And I think it's because we saw in each other eyes and voice and conversation, that we really liked each other and trusted each other. These will be long friendships.

[mercerquietman]

I have met about six to eight people face to face over the years from this site and eons, mostly from my Wisconsin groups. I have always found people I've met to be very nice and pretty much how I pictured them from online interaction.

[Eaglewoman]

I only met one from Eons.We did fine on emails, but in person we really didn't click.

[Dee Holland Eidson]

Yes! i have met one lady she was a great friend. somehow we lost touch after eons went down. I have however met quite a few friends on FaceBook.I have a very good friend (male) who lives in England .We have been writing to each other for 6 months.He is supposed to come and visit me for the Holidays.We do a lot of online chatting and phone calling too. He has gotten to be a very important part of my life.We talk about everything.I can't tell you what a difference he has made in my life.I am very anxious to meet him for real.

[dwalt]

Like most of you I had friends that called or e-mailed on Eons.  Somehow after that shut down we lost touch.  I really miss that and hope to either find them or find new friends.

[oldmike]

I maintain email contact with a few people I've met online, and have met up with some in person. One in particular has become a very good friend and we try to see each other occasionally -- distance is a problem.

[Grandma Helen]

I have one gentleman I met on Eons, not long before it crashed, and we email a few times a day.  Very nice man, but he lives in California and me in Maryland.  We've talked a number of times on the phone.  I doubt I'll ever meet him, but it's still fun to chat with him via email. 

[Mickchick]

I joined an online widow/widowers group a few months after my husband died 14 years ago.  They were always having get togethers (GTG's) in various parts of the country.  The first year I went to quite  few of them and met some wonderful people that I still keep in touch with via e-mail, and in some cases telephone and in person.  I've exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses with a couple of people I met on Eons and we are still in touch, and one of these days I hope to meet them face to face as friends.  Not looking for anything more than that from an online association. 

[carol machulski]

I haven't cpnnected with any online people that I became acquainted with through eons or here partly because I spend little time on the computer. On the other hand, I have 2 longtime friends, one now in Canada & the other in Yorkshire England, that I met through being penpals. We've met several times in Canada and in the US, but so far I've only met the English friend once face-to-face when I was on a trip to the UK. I still enjoy writing/receiving letters but also keep in touch with some longtime friends through emails. One of my friends lives in Manhattan & we see each other a few times a year and on occasion, if the times are good, she has groomed for me at horse shows. I guess I'm a mixed media person. LOL!