I know what you’re thinking when I say “internet friends” and my real life friends found it rather weird at first as well

The Internet has changed everything: the way we shop, the way we get our news and the way we date.

While the Internet used to be considered a nerdy way of meeting people and was regarded as a way for perverts to lure hapless victims, that isn’t the case any more.

The Internet has become a medium in which we can keep in touch with many people in our lives, and find new people to bring into our lives.

I’ve always been rather skeptical about “Internet dating,” perhaps partly because of the views that our society had about meeting people on the Internet. But then I started to really think about it. What used to seem a shady way to meet people doesn’t seem to be that way at all anymore.

Even my own thoughts have changed. I have been part of a music-trading community on the Internet for years and have met a lot of people through the site. I actually consider a few of the people that I have come in contact with to be some of my closest friends, even though we have never met in “real life” and if we have, it was for a brief moment at a concert.

My “Internet friends” as I like to call them, have become a part of my everyday schedule. I get up and check my e-mail, but I also check the Web site to see what is going on in the discussion board.

And, yes, I know what you’re thinking when I say “Internet friends” and my real life friends found it rather weird at first as well. But these people and I were all drawn together by a love of live music and have created an entire online community that has resulted in a plethora of relationships and one wedding so far.

Once I got out of the mindset of thinking I was some sort of nerd, I realized that a lot of other people are turning to the Internet as a safe way of meeting people. It no longer holds the same sort of stigma it did when it first become a part of our lives.

The Internet is an excellent tool for generating a relationship with someone. You are able to find people with similar interests — as I was able to do through my Phish-related site — and start up conversations with them.

There is also the level of safety that is involved in using the Internet to meet people. Yes, we’ve heard horror stories and all of that, but as long as you use common sense, everything should be OK.

What I mean by “safety” is that you can control the rate of things at a level that is comfortable for you. For example, if you are “e-flirting” with someone, you can make sure it stays within your safety zones and it is very easy to state that you are uncomfortable with someone if it goes too far.

While I haven’t met anyone that I have had any sort of romantic relationships develop from the Internet, I know many people who have. They are in some of the most successful relationships that I have ever seen.

Perhaps the Internet also allows you the added bonus of really weeding out the people you don’t want to talk to. For example, those people who don’t have pictures on myspace.com and “holla” at you.

So no Internet romance for me yet, but I have made a lot of friends through it. And not just acquaintances, these are people who I will most likely be in contact with for the rest of my life.

If I had kept with the mindset of the Internet being a creepy place for pedophiles and perverts, I wouldn’t have these friendships and my friends wouldn’t be in such successful relationships.

I am glad that our society has started to lift the stigma off of meeting people on the Internet.

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