Making friends and relationships online?

LegacyUser

I am in my early twenties, but due to various reasons, I want to see if making new friends online and then meeting them in person actually works, as I keep having bad luck in real life. But I don't want to just sit and mope about it at home and waste my twenties away, I actually want to get out and DO something about it.
I just have a few questions about it though.

I know MeetUp.com seems to be good, and is something a lot more people are using now, but only problem is that in my home area and the area near college, there is barely any for socialising, also they aim toward people over 25 or early thirties. The only ones that do groups for young people are in Dublin and I am too far away.

Another site is Badoo.com, where they give options of making new friends, dating or chat. I made a profile now, but I am afraid to use it because I keep hearing rumours of fake profiles and scammers online, also even when you state that you only want friendship, apparently creepy guys still message you for sex. But I still want to know if anyone succeeded in making friendships on there.

I did join clubs in my 1st year of college, but due to my timetable, I could only go to one, and even then barely anyone else showed up for it, so I lost interest after a while.
For the summer, I have signed up for some volunteer work.

So while that is all face-to-face, I was just wondering has the online choice of meeting friends online and then in person works out at all? Or does it only work if you want to date someone?

Lou.m

curiousaboutonlineworld wrote: »

I am in my early twenties, but due to various reasons, I want to see if making new friends online and then meeting them in person actually works, as I keep having bad luck in real life. But I don't want to just sit and mope about it at home and waste my twenties away, I actually want to get out and DO something about it.
I just have a few questions about it though.

I know MeetUp.com seems to be good, and is something a lot more people are using now, but only problem is that in my home area and the area near college, there is barely any for socialising, also they aim toward people over 25 or early thirties. The only ones that do groups for young people are in Dublin and I am too far away.

Another site is Badoo.com, where they give options of making new friends, dating or chat. I made a profile now, but I am afraid to use it because I keep hearing rumours of fake profiles and scammers online, also even when you state that you only want friendship, apparently creepy guys still message you for sex. But I still want to know if anyone succeeded in making friendships on there.

I did join clubs in my 1st year of college, but due to my timetable, I could only go to one, and even then barely anyone else showed up for it, so I lost interest after a while.
For the summer, I have signed up for some volunteer work.

So while that is all face-to-face, I was just wondering has the online choice of meeting friends online and then in person works out at all? Or does it only work if you want to date someone?

I have met a lot of friends online first then in real life. What tends to happen is after you meet in real life you only meet up real life and not really online anymore I don't know why. But yeah I have met some good peeps that way.

Just be careful etc..there are some freaks.

LegacyUser

Lou.m wrote: »

What tends to happen is after you meet in real life you only meet up real life and not really online anymore I don't know why

That's a good thing though isn't it? I mean I would rather meet new people in real life, and in person and hang out, rather than just talk online all day time. It's just online is a good starting point for me at the moment.

Mikros

Go for it, at least give it a try and see if it works for you.

You will probably get a few unwanted messages, it is the nature of any online site, but just delete and ignore. Other than that just take the usual precautions when meeting new people - don't give out personal details, always meet in a public place and let someone know where you are going. That's just common sense, not to get you worried or anything. I've met plenty of interesting people online and in person and never had a bother.

Lou.m

curiousaboutonlineworld wrote: »

That's a good thing though isn't it? I mean I would rather meet new people in real life, and in person and hang out, rather than just talk online all day time. It's just online is a good starting point for me at the moment.

It's fine ....just make sure you are certain you get good vibes. Make sure you respect peoples boundaries and be sure to make sure they respect yours.

I would never pursue anything in real life unless it was clear it was wanted. Respect peoples privacy. Some people have profiles etc but are just not into interacting on them.

The vast majority are fine lovely people. You have to make sure you don't invade peoples space. Not everyone will be as open to online friendships going real life as you are.

But go for it.

missjm

I met some of my current best friends online and as the above poster says, we meet regularly offline now. We keep in touch via email, facebook and text though too. I also met a lot of people I would not meet again or wish to stay in contact with so yes, be very careful. If you're going to meet anybody, make sure it's in a public place and go with instinct. If something seems off, don't hang about.

LegacyUser

Lou.m wrote: »

It's fine ....just make sure you are certain you get good vibes. Make sure you respect peoples boundaries and be sure to make sure they respect yours.

I would never pursue anything in real life unless it was clear it was wanted. Respect peoples privacy. Some people have profiles etc but are just not into interacting on them.

The vast majority are fine lovely people. You have to make sure you don't invade peoples space. Not everyone will be as open to online friendships going real life as you are.

But go for it.

Of course, I definately would not be the pushy type. If people are not interested, that's fine by me. I suppose I just want to make sure that Badoo wont be a total waste of time.

While I was living in Galway, at least 90% of my greatest friends I had met Online. Well, specifically through here. We would attend bowling, drinks, the cinema, and many other things. Met some great people, met some weird people, but that's what happens with life.

I know there are meetups arranged through various forums on here - check out The Gentleman's Club, After Hours, and I believe places like Tattoos & Piercings have their own too. They're always worth a shot - have had great times at a load of them.

I've also been thinking of going to a MeetUp meet, because there seems to be a lot of things there that I'm interested in.

As for online dating, you can check out this thread here - there is an Online Dating forum here on this site and to get access, you need to request it in that thread.