Dear Diary,
Your voice has never caressed my ear. My hand has never touched your sleeve. I have never had the opportunity to share a physical cup of coffee and an audible laugh with you. I have not really seen your face; the array of expressions that flow in the course of a conversation. I have only seen a frozen image chosen by you.
But I hear your words in my mind as they spill across the screen. Tidbits of your reality sent through space. Thoughts that you may not actually say if we were seated together in a café. You deftly manipulate the letters to speak your personality. You endear yourself to me with your humor, philosophies, creativity, advice, hopes and everyday happenstances. As I do to you. All within the world of adjusting letters.
It amazes me to think that I have developed cherished friendships with people that I have never met in actuality. Twitter has done this. What started to me as purely a marketing tool has garnered me a surprising and wonderful byproduct; more friends. I had expected to get along fine with the people of TwitterLand but I wasn’t expecting in depth friendships. That is what I have ended up with and I appreciate every one of you. Your jokes make me laugh, your philosophies make me think, your creativity inspires me, your advice helps me, your hopes are tangible, and your life happenings relate to my own. Your blog gives me perhaps more insight into you than if we interacted in person.
Some people would argue that cyberfriends are not real friends. I disagree. You are all real people living real lives somewhere that is real. You are not pretend like a character in one of my stories. Our friendship is merely on a different plane. Perhaps there is a dash of fantasy thrown in, but what’s wrong with that? A definition of friendship is “A person attached to another person by feelings of affection or personal regard”. Yes. You are my friends and I am happy for that. And so, cheers to you! *Raises coffee cup in tribute*
Dear Diary .... by Kellianne Sweeney 
Comments on: "A Friend By Any Other Name" (22)
You’re so sweet, Kellianne. Great post. And I agree. Definitely made some real friends spread out far and wide, who I may never actually see, but who I genuinely enjoy talking with. People are still people, even in Cybertown (sounds much friendlier than “cyberspace”)
I am very glad to count you as one of my valuable cyberfriends. 🙂
CHEERS! You were talking to me, right? Cause you love me and I love you? LOL! I totally agree. Twitter has brought me so many true friends.
YES I AM! Love me some Krystal!
CHEERS! You were talking to me, too, right? What other friends can you laugh in the morning with, over coffee, in your pj’s? From Ireland, East coast, West coast, Australia, all over the world. I love my twitter friends,
I SO was talking about you! I adore giggling with you in my jammies to start my day off right. Love you right back!
What a lovely post, Kellianne, and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. Cyber friends ARE real friends. I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with a lot of my Irish Twitter friends over the past six months and found them all to be as friendly, chatty, warm and witty as they are online!
Good to know about meeting twitter friends in person. I haven’t had the opportunity yet although Krystal and I had a near miss! Thank you, Derek and I totally count you in my circle of dearest twitterpals.
Kellianne, you’ve managed to say something I have so wanted to express myself recently, and you do it so much better than I ever could. I have truly come to value the friendships I’ve made online. They seem to be formed with more intuition rather than with the often distracting nature of accent and clothing and appearance in general. It’s more about what’s going on inside. – Even when it’s not.
Fascinating, isn’t it? Online friendships take place completely in our minds without outer distractions. Thank you for your compliment and I do like the way you express your thoughts as well. That’s what our lovely friendship is based on! 🙂
I love my cyberbuddies, too. This post mirrors my feelings almost exactly. You’re a sweetie!
I am glad to have tapped into your thoughts! I find your blog posts, facebook statuses and comments very inspirational and genuine. I’m happy to have you here!
Great post, Kellianne! And so true – there many different ways to become friends, and many different layers to friendship. 🙂
Ashley, you are a Dear 🙂 Your kindness and creativity sparkles in Cybertown! Thank you.
This is beautiful Kellianne. It’s amazing how something like twitter can change your life and, yes, all the friends we make are real. I love my cyber friends.
I am happy to count you among them, Deb 🙂
What a beautiful post!! You have a way with words.. I so agree with what your saying here. I actually met a woman online over 3 yrs ago and we talked daily for years and now we run a site together and I don’t know what I would do with out her.. I will never meet her as she lives in the UK and I live in the USA but I love her and her support and friendship means the world to me.. Not everyone you meet becomes friends like this but there are so many great people I meet and talk to online that brighten my life tremendously!! Thanks for suggesting I come check out your blog.. I will definitely be back!! 🙂
Shauna, that is a beautiful friendship with a beautiful story to go along with it! Thank you fro sharing. I am glad you enjoyed my post. Thank you!
Hi Kellianne, I only joined Twitter a few months ago and now have all but given up on Facebook. I love talking to other like-minded people there. I may not be chatting to them in person but who cares? It’s a great way to meet people from all over the world.
Very well said! Thank you for your comment 🙂
You couldn’t have said that any better and I certainly couldn’t have been as eloquent, though I wish I had written it 😉 I’m so grateful that you wrote it instead.
Thank you so much for your kind comments! I wish you the best.