4non
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Part 2 of 4non's IRL-related threads!
Telling your parents that you have internet friends can be quite a shock for them. This is especially true if you've told them some personal information, et cetera.
Some of the common complains parents seem to use against online friends are:
- "They're not your real friends"
- "What if they're all 40 year old rapists"
- "You could be abducted"
I'll be axiomatically eviscerating (Tenebrous12321) all of these claims for your enjoyment.
"They're not your real friends! How can you be "friends" with someone you don't even know???1?!?"
Yeah, this one. This is a common statement that parental units recite whenever they first discover that you actually have somewhat of a life online. They say this primarily to "scare" you out of being friends with people you met online due to the BS articles they've read online over the years. They primarily mean through this statement that they are concerned with the fact that you've never met this person in the real world, and so they consider them to be robots.
How to combat this:
Argue (and this is usually the case for most people with this issue, according to what I've been told) that these people you've met online have actually been kind to you, been honest to you, have helped you through your hardest times, and have kept you company while you were alone when nobody from the real world did. Knowing someone doesn't just mean personally seeing their face. From months/years of knowing someone, even online, you figure out their entire personality quite rapidly. You begin to have inside jokes, stories, and other memorable moments just like with people that you know IRL. It's like them arguing that blind people can't have real friends just because they can't see them. It's nonsensical.
"They're could be 40 year old rapists for all you know!!!11!!@#2!!@3!"
This one pisses me off beyond words. Parents argue, especially if you plan on meeting up with your online friends, that they could possibly be murderers/rapists/kidnappers etc. This is regardless of age. They are concerned that these people you meet online are not who they really say they are, and that they plan on doing malicious things to you as soon as they get the chance to.
How to combat this:
Explain to them that everyone you've ever met in the real world was a stranger at some point. You did not know their background, personality, or hidden intentions. There is always risk in any humanly thing you do, whether it be driving, flying, swimming, or socializing. They all have a percentage of being harmful, but the percentage is often too low to matter whatsoever. You don't stop talking to people just because you read that someone had been murdered after trying to befriend someone they didn't know. Because your parents have experienced real-world socialization, they see it perfectly okay. They are unfamiliar with online socialization, therefore they deem it "dangerous". Explain this to them, and there's nothing logical they can respond with arguing against you.
"You want to meet up with them??? You could be abducted/raped/killed/kidnapped etc!!!1"
This closely ties in with my previous point, but is still irritable enough to be put into a separate point. I dislike this for the same reasons, the parents have not yet experienced it, so they believe it is wrong. They do not understand that there is risk in anything, and without putting yourself at risk, you will never live a satisfying life.
How to combat this:
If your parents are arguing this, it's likely because of some random article they met online about how this 15 year old girl met some stranger on Omegle and immediately decided to meet up. For those of you on this forum, I hope you aren't stupid enough to make the same mistake. We socialize on this network primarily to have someone else to play the game with, not just to make friends with strangers. Besides, any person with half a brain can tell whether or not someone is fishy simply based on how they act. If they constantly pressure you to give personal information, you know to ignore them. It's just common sense. If your parents seriously think you're stupid enough to go into a dark alleyway with someone you've never personally seen, then they need to be seriously enlightened. Most people on the internet meet up at conventions. At these conventions, there's tens of thousands of people surrounding you. If anything were to go wrong, these bystanders would help.
--
I understand parents' general concern about the safety of their child, but sometimes it goes too far.
Telling your parents that you have internet friends can be quite a shock for them. This is especially true if you've told them some personal information, et cetera.
Some of the common complains parents seem to use against online friends are:
- "They're not your real friends"
- "What if they're all 40 year old rapists"
- "You could be abducted"
I'll be axiomatically eviscerating (Tenebrous12321) all of these claims for your enjoyment.
"They're not your real friends! How can you be "friends" with someone you don't even know???1?!?"
Yeah, this one. This is a common statement that parental units recite whenever they first discover that you actually have somewhat of a life online. They say this primarily to "scare" you out of being friends with people you met online due to the BS articles they've read online over the years. They primarily mean through this statement that they are concerned with the fact that you've never met this person in the real world, and so they consider them to be robots.
How to combat this:
Argue (and this is usually the case for most people with this issue, according to what I've been told) that these people you've met online have actually been kind to you, been honest to you, have helped you through your hardest times, and have kept you company while you were alone when nobody from the real world did. Knowing someone doesn't just mean personally seeing their face. From months/years of knowing someone, even online, you figure out their entire personality quite rapidly. You begin to have inside jokes, stories, and other memorable moments just like with people that you know IRL. It's like them arguing that blind people can't have real friends just because they can't see them. It's nonsensical.
"They're could be 40 year old rapists for all you know!!!11!!@#2!!@3!"
This one pisses me off beyond words. Parents argue, especially if you plan on meeting up with your online friends, that they could possibly be murderers/rapists/kidnappers etc. This is regardless of age. They are concerned that these people you meet online are not who they really say they are, and that they plan on doing malicious things to you as soon as they get the chance to.
How to combat this:
Explain to them that everyone you've ever met in the real world was a stranger at some point. You did not know their background, personality, or hidden intentions. There is always risk in any humanly thing you do, whether it be driving, flying, swimming, or socializing. They all have a percentage of being harmful, but the percentage is often too low to matter whatsoever. You don't stop talking to people just because you read that someone had been murdered after trying to befriend someone they didn't know. Because your parents have experienced real-world socialization, they see it perfectly okay. They are unfamiliar with online socialization, therefore they deem it "dangerous". Explain this to them, and there's nothing logical they can respond with arguing against you.
"You want to meet up with them??? You could be abducted/raped/killed/kidnapped etc!!!1"
This closely ties in with my previous point, but is still irritable enough to be put into a separate point. I dislike this for the same reasons, the parents have not yet experienced it, so they believe it is wrong. They do not understand that there is risk in anything, and without putting yourself at risk, you will never live a satisfying life.
How to combat this:
If your parents are arguing this, it's likely because of some random article they met online about how this 15 year old girl met some stranger on Omegle and immediately decided to meet up. For those of you on this forum, I hope you aren't stupid enough to make the same mistake. We socialize on this network primarily to have someone else to play the game with, not just to make friends with strangers. Besides, any person with half a brain can tell whether or not someone is fishy simply based on how they act. If they constantly pressure you to give personal information, you know to ignore them. It's just common sense. If your parents seriously think you're stupid enough to go into a dark alleyway with someone you've never personally seen, then they need to be seriously enlightened. Most people on the internet meet up at conventions. At these conventions, there's tens of thousands of people surrounding you. If anything were to go wrong, these bystanders would help.
--
I understand parents' general concern about the safety of their child, but sometimes it goes too far.
