Is online websites good for teenagers these days to make friends with?

Sometimes I wonder to myself, what are the good things about making friends online?!?!?!

Well, one of the good things about making friends online is that the feeling of living away from home, our online friends can be a good support system. They might help you get over the feeling of loneliness. Making friends online also can teach us a lesson or two. We will get the opportunity to interact with the person and may be getting to know many new things.

Firstly, the number of real-life friends is positively correlated with subjective well-being even after controlling for income, demographic variables and personality differences. Doubling the number of friends in real life has an equivalent effect on well-being as a 50% increase in income.
Secondly, the size of online networks is largely uncorrelated with subjective well-being.
Thirdly, we find that real-life friends are much more important for people who are single, divorced, separated or widowed than they are for people who are married or living with a partner.
There’s this question always on my mind which is “what are the challenges of making friends online in social websites.”
Well, being in the modern society, people have fully embraced the Internet and other mobile communication technologies such as cell phones for communicating with friends, making new friends, seeking information, and creating media products. Even though most uses of online technology have their advantages and excitement, there are increasing problems associated with adolescents using the Internet to send and post cruel or harmful messages and different form of communications such as images and videos to harass and bully people that we know in real life or even online.
 
So therefore, is it good to make friends online? Well, I believe that it is a good thing because of the exposure to people overseas and learning things we never know from the people we meet online however there are cons to making friends due to the motives and not meeting the person at all. I would continue to make friends online but I would just advise to be aware and not to give out personal details no matter what.
 

I started to get curious and wanted to find out the difference between online friends and real life friends. Therefore I discovered a few differences.

Effects of making friends online towards real friends.

Many people especially the teenagers enjoy going on social networking websites to chat with friends online in the virtual world. What many people do not know is that making friends in the online world has both its negative and positive effects. 

One of the positive effects that why people want to make friends online is so that people can still keep in contact with their long lost friends who stay far away from them. Some make friends online so that they can share their pictures and videos with each other. 

Following on, people vent their feelings to their online friends as they feel that it is less embarrassing. 

Negative effects are that when people post their personal information online, many do not know that some users will use their personal information to do illegal activities. Teenagers make friends online so that they can chat with random strangers online to waste their time away. From my knowledge, most people want to make friends online with people from different countries so that they can learn the different cultures of different countries and have a broader knowledge of the culture of different parts of the world. 

Well, it is true that sometimes making friends online is good but there are times when making friends have its negative effects. When making friends online, we do not know what the real person looks like and sometimes we may be in danger of getting scammed by these online users to give them money for “emergency” purposes. Thus making friends in the virtual world may not be exactly a good thing as you never know that you may be in a risk of being in danger. 

Think before you intend to make friends online in the virtual and make a wise decision. Engaging with friends in the online world has both its negative and positive effects.

Chan Tsun Kyd