I have met wonderful people through online communities. Many of these people have gone on to be IRL (in real life) friends, that I get together with regularly. However, aside from that, online relationships can be a burden. There is a certain expectation that you stay in regular contact with people from all over the world that you will never meet, because online communication is so "easy". I now am more conscious of who I bother to stay in touch with...

We have a lot of kids who spend a lot of time on Bebo which is a site where you can post stuff, chat to your friends and so on. I decided to have a go and began posting my Christian worldview in contrast to the 'impersonal' plus 'time' plus 'chance' systems that dominate our 21st century.

(For example in Buddhism personality doesn't exist as with all the sciences. So when the Buddhist and the scientist talk about love or trust or hatred or whatever, they are talking about something that cannot exist in their systems because there is no 'personality' here. But for the Christian love and communication have always occurred between the members of the Trinity. Love for us has meaning and value because the Christian has an absolute or a universal to tell them what love is and its value. In Islam Allah was alone so love cannot occur and so the Muslim understands love in another framework to that of the Christian.)

So I get the opportunity to write stuff like this on Bebo for my friends in New Zealand and Australia to consider. I'm an ex-pat Kiwi (26 yrs) and have family in New Zealand I have never met. Now since having a Bebo of my own I have met many this way.