Meeting Online Friends: Is it Worth It?

Back in the late 2000s (Friendster/Multiply era), blogging was a thing and online communities were built on so-called boards or forum sites. E.g. Pinoyexchange, tipidpc ,etc.

As the internet grew, people such as myself started building an online persona. It's part of living online and you choose how much you want to reveal about yourself, or maintain anonymity.

Fresh out of university, I lived and worked in Japan. Assigned to a client company in Saitama (north of Tokyo), I lived in the suburbs with an older colleague. Except for work, there was nothing much to do there so I spent most of my time online.

I came to discover a forum site for Filipinos ("Pinoys") in Japan. It's no longer existent but it was named Timog Forum. There really was great interaction within the community as I've been actively posting on the boards; eventually, I joined my very first "EB". I think it's best to share my blogpost about it here:

The idea of joining an 'EB' was amusing to me because it used to imply people meeting up to flirt with each other. In our case, it was simply a gathering of fellow Filipinos who share similar interests. It was an enjoyable experience to finally meet individuals behind their online personas. Based on how I communicated on the board, some assumed that I was older, but they were surprised to discover that I was actually a timid young lad. I had already seen pictures of some individuals shared online, but it was nice to meet them in person.

Through that online community, I actually have found some of my lifelong friends whom I still keep in touch with through the years. The friendship was formed based on our passion with photography and travels while we were in Japan. Truly, I can say meeting my online friends was definitely worth it as they became real ones.

This post is in response to HivePH's April theme about meeting up as they plan to have their first meetup this April 29. I see HivePH as a thriving community, similar to how I saw forum communities back then. If you're passionate on certain things and at the same time would like to socialize more, might as well do it with people you share interests with. Besides, coming from years of the pandemic lockdown, I think it is worth celebrating meeting up with people. Of course, there would be different personalities you will be encountering which can provide flavor to your life.

Although I don't think I would be able to join the HivePH meetup, I hope it would be a success. Looking forward to seeing pics/vids of the event. Make us regret not being able to join. Hopefully soon most of us would be able to join as it shouldn't be the first and last one.

Cheers!