So the internet can be a big scary place, but it can also be a really rewarding experience. Ever since starting secondary school and my parents purchasing a computer for the first time, I have been pretty addicted to the internet and finding new websites and things. In some ways this has been good, but it has also been bad too. I used to spend a lot of time on gaming websites and talking to my friends on messengers such as MSN or Yahoo instead of getting on and doing stuff that I actually needed to do like school work, or music practice. In a way, it was an escape for me. But it was also procrastination. I also used forums as well, to keep up with the latest Harry Potter news as the books were coming out. On sites such as rupertgrint.net and mugglenet.com I made a lot of friends. We'll come back to that in a minute.
Nowadays, I rarely use MSN. Instead, I feel Facebook and Twitter have replaced the old messengers. It's much easier to keep up with all your friends online now, when you can essentially view their whole life on one page. At first, I didn't understand Twitter at all, but now I totally get it. I mean, who doesn't want to know what Britney Spears is having for breakfast?! Another website I use is of course YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/lucyedgehill) and I spend a lot of time watching videos and sometimes making videos on here. I've made a lot of friends through this website over the years.
Many of my real life friends don't really get why I spend so much time online. But as I said before, it's an escape for me. I world where I can be myself. And I've met so many people on the internet from all over the world who are now some of my best friends. In some ways, it's a lot easier to make friends this way, as you can find people exactly like you. Of course you have to be careful, as in a lot of situations, you don't know who you are really talking to, and people aren't always who they say they are. But generally, it's worked out really well for me. The first experience I can recall when I actually met up with someone in real life who I'd been speaking to on the internet for quite a while, was when a lovely girl from Sweden decided to come to England and visit. Having been talking to her for quite some time, we decided to meet up while she was here. As I was fairly young, I went along with my mum and she brought her mum along too. It's very very important, and I cannot stress this enough, absolutely essential, that you never meet someone from the internet on your own. Always take a friend or a parent or someone with you, just in case. And meet somewhere really open with lots of people. Anyway, so this girl came to meet me and it was just generally a fascinating experience getting to meet someone who I had had this online friendship with.
Another time I met someone from the internet was when I met a really nice guy called Jamie. We'd been talking for a while and had similar interests and he came to stay with me while I was at university. Again, I made sure to take my friend along with me for safety, and he turned out to be a lovely and normal person. The next person I decided to meet up with has become one of my best friends. Katherine and I had been talking for years online and met through our shared love of Harry Potter, more specifcally a certain red-haired character/actor! She lives in Canada and one year she came over to England and we met up and went to a McFly gig. The year after that she came to stay for a couple of weeks with me at uni, and then a couple of years after that, she actually came and lived with me for 3 months. Overall, I think it just shows what a fantastic thing meeting people online can actually be, as long as you're sensible about it.
I'm actually going over to Canada in a couple of months to stay with another online friend Laura, who I met in real life for the first time last year. She is also one of my Harry Potter friends and we were able to go to the last premiere together which was amazing. I've been to every one of the Harry Potter premieres except for the first one, and I've been with different people to all of them. But there's just something special about going with someone who loves it just as much as you.
Last summer I even went to a YouTube gathering and it was just the most wonderful, surreal thing I've ever done. I met the most amazing people there and had this crazy, fun weekend and words can't really descibe the experience. So if you take one thing out of this, just remember, meeting people from online is great, but be safe. If you are young, take your parents/friends and going to a gathering is definitely a great, fun and safe way to meet people who are like you and have similar interests. Until next time!
Days until Canada: 63 :D
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