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Online Friends
Aug. 10th, 2002 09:36 amI was watching The Screensavers the other day and they were talking about "fleshmet" as in 'is he someone you have fleshmet or an online friend?' While the term fleshmet sounds little too butcher shop for me, it's a little better than face-to-face (or worse f2f).
I've been online one way or the other since the early 80's. In the beginning it was electronic bulletin boards that were mainly local and, sometimes, connected to others via fido. In the early days, it was mainly teenage boys and me (then in my 30's). The boys were thrilled to have a real girl online. They knew far more about computers than I did and taught me so much. I taught them that not all girls were scarey and some were interested in computers.
During that time, I had a job that moved me to a new time zone about every 18 months. The first thing I'd do when I got to a new place was to find the local ebbs and find new online friends who were always well versed in the local culture - where to eat, where to get your shoes fixed, etc. In the early days, I rarely ever fleshmet any of them. And, since, most of the bulletin boards were not totally fido'd, I'd lose them when I moved.
In the last half of the 80's I found online bridge and spent hours playing bridge online with people around the world. One night I was in Seattle, playing on my computer. The drill was that before the game we spent a few minutes exchanging 'where are you's' - I was partnered with a guy in Switzerland. The other pair consisted of a guy in England and one in... Seattle. A few messages later, we figured out we were within a block of each other! I never met him either. One woman, in San Diego, that I partnered with a lot was a real estate attorney and once, when I needed legal real estate help, we talked on the phone and she halped me out but we never did meet although we played bridge together for 5 years.
But, I have fleshmet some online friends and, for the most part, the experiences have been wonderful. I put up my first website in 1995. I had just made my second trip to New Zealand and was fascinated. I devoted a page to New Zealand on my website. I got a note from a guy in Dunedin named Scott. He'd been online for a week and found my website. We still swap notes every day. In 1998, he made his first trip to the United States and stayed with me for 3 weeks. He's a good bit younger and not my type at all and we shared my house as friendly roommates. It was great fun to show him around. We still swap emails about once a day and remains one of my best friends.
I still have lots of really good, long term, friends that I have never fleshmet. Only occassionally do I even think about it. My friend, Jeanie who lives in Mississippi, wrote the other day that she's thinking about getting her hair cut short and did I think it would look ok? Although I've known Jeanie for more than 5 years now, we've never fleshmet. I had to remind her that my opinion of her hair options was pretty worthless since I've never even seen a photo of her. I have no idea if she is tall or short of skinny or fat or even has hair at all! But she is as real to me as the friends I do flesh see every day.
My LJ friends are much the same way only even more so since I read their thoughts every day.
If meeting face to face is fleshmet, wonder what meeting online is... digimet? bytemet? intramet?
I've been online one way or the other since the early 80's. In the beginning it was electronic bulletin boards that were mainly local and, sometimes, connected to others via fido. In the early days, it was mainly teenage boys and me (then in my 30's). The boys were thrilled to have a real girl online. They knew far more about computers than I did and taught me so much. I taught them that not all girls were scarey and some were interested in computers.
During that time, I had a job that moved me to a new time zone about every 18 months. The first thing I'd do when I got to a new place was to find the local ebbs and find new online friends who were always well versed in the local culture - where to eat, where to get your shoes fixed, etc. In the early days, I rarely ever fleshmet any of them. And, since, most of the bulletin boards were not totally fido'd, I'd lose them when I moved.
In the last half of the 80's I found online bridge and spent hours playing bridge online with people around the world. One night I was in Seattle, playing on my computer. The drill was that before the game we spent a few minutes exchanging 'where are you's' - I was partnered with a guy in Switzerland. The other pair consisted of a guy in England and one in... Seattle. A few messages later, we figured out we were within a block of each other! I never met him either. One woman, in San Diego, that I partnered with a lot was a real estate attorney and once, when I needed legal real estate help, we talked on the phone and she halped me out but we never did meet although we played bridge together for 5 years.
But, I have fleshmet some online friends and, for the most part, the experiences have been wonderful. I put up my first website in 1995. I had just made my second trip to New Zealand and was fascinated. I devoted a page to New Zealand on my website. I got a note from a guy in Dunedin named Scott. He'd been online for a week and found my website. We still swap notes every day. In 1998, he made his first trip to the United States and stayed with me for 3 weeks. He's a good bit younger and not my type at all and we shared my house as friendly roommates. It was great fun to show him around. We still swap emails about once a day and remains one of my best friends.
I still have lots of really good, long term, friends that I have never fleshmet. Only occassionally do I even think about it. My friend, Jeanie who lives in Mississippi, wrote the other day that she's thinking about getting her hair cut short and did I think it would look ok? Although I've known Jeanie for more than 5 years now, we've never fleshmet. I had to remind her that my opinion of her hair options was pretty worthless since I've never even seen a photo of her. I have no idea if she is tall or short of skinny or fat or even has hair at all! But she is as real to me as the friends I do flesh see every day.
My LJ friends are much the same way only even more so since I read their thoughts every day.
If meeting face to face is fleshmet, wonder what meeting online is... digimet? bytemet? intramet?
