Cyber friends

Social networks and internet marketing have their pitfalls. 

The massive time suck that can quickly drain away your day probably tops the list, but there are other pitfalls, as well.

Predators lurk in the shadows and seek out vulnerable prey for money scams and other nefarious plots. Trolls seek to bully and mock people for their views. People are able to post nasty things about one another--often things they would never say face to face. People that are much more tech savvy than I use social networking as a way to stalk targets of prey. Potential employers and would be business contacts (even colleges and universities) scan social media to find out more about its users, and I'm sure that you could name a host of other negatives when it comes to how people use technology against others.

But there is a bright side, too.

I get a lot of news from the internet via Twitter feeds that I follow. You do have to be careful. There are a lot of poor news feeds as well as a plethora of fake sites. (I am greatly annoyed by people that post articles from satirical sites or fake news sites and represent them as true.)

I follow or have friended a number of people and have come to respect their opinions (though I don't always agree with them), and a number of people have followed or friended me.

I get some good health information and fitness motivation from sites, find new recipes, view some beautiful pictures, read creative writing, and see how other people live, love and learn.

Most of the people I follow are seen as good sources of information. There are a few that I would like to meet, although I realize it is highly unlikely that will ever happen. Most of the people that I would like to meet are fellow bloggers. Some of them are bloggers from the past that no longer write and I wonder what their writing would look like today. 

Some are air traffic controllers that I have never met, many of them are now retired. 

There are a few that I have no recollection of how we first connected but we have.

Of course, there are some athletes, reporters and celebrities that I follow and would like to meet, but it is probably even more unlikely that would happen (What's more unlikely than highly unlikely? Impossible?) and those are all a one sided following -- meaning none of them follow me.

What about you?

Do you have cyber friends that you would like to meet?

I didn't repost this when I saw it and I'm not sure that I would ever really hang with some of the people I mentioned (more like they might not want to hang with me), but I would like to meet them.

John <><