Its no news that in this digital age, we have numerous
relationships like friends, colleagues, mentors, casual acquaintances online, while some people even go as far as dating someone online, honestly back then I did it too because I was probably young and naive, I have grown alot more than that to know that its not really healthy. Most times this relationships can be valuable but not underestimating the facts there’s alot of risk attached to it and these risks could be blurred boundaries and emotional dependency, I was once attached to someone online that I have never ever met in life, looking back from now its actually wierd and crazy.
I have seen so many crazy things happen online just being friends with people online, some times we become friends with people that we do not even know about their background, if they are mentally stable or even good enough to chat with talkless of being friends with them, some time ago something very terrible happened to a teenager around where I live, this girl had a phone and unknowingly to her family she had a boyfriend online, and yes its no news that people do share personal and private photos with people they think they have something with, this girl in particular shared her nude photos and videos with this boy and this boy later shared her photos and the videos online, he posted it everywhere, on WhatsApp, Facebook etc.
The whole area couldn’t stop talking about the incident that period of time and to the think the father of the girl was a pastor and he even owns a church in the area too, they had to send her to one of their relatives home for a while, untill the matter died down, I don’t really know what the boy was trying to achieve but he really did her bad, and this is why even we as adult we should be very careful of what we do online, and also the kind of friends we accept online.
If there are ways I maintain my online relationships to ensure that it doesn’t go beyond what it should be, then here is a way i do that;
• Set clear boundaries: it is not every online that should carry same level with personal engagement, defining the nature of the relationship helps to prevent overstepping, avoid oversharing personal informations and photos, avoid conversation that leads to sharing personal struggles.
• Beware of emotional dependency: Like I said earlier this has actually happened to me before, I chatted with this guy online in my teen days almost everyday, it became an habit and Infact it was like we were dating online, in every means try as much as possible to avoid these kind of relationships, some online friends and support group might really help but we shouldn’t use it to replace real life friendships.
• Maintaining professionalism in work relationships: If this can be advised everytime to people in real life, then it should be also appiled digitally, avoid every means of having something different to do with your work partner, this might cause some chaos during work hours.
• Monitor your emotional and mental health: this is very important because most people actually fall something thats not real online, they start to be obsessed with someone that don’t even know them from Adam! Digital relationship is supposed to add value to your life not drain or stress you, but so many people today are emotionally and mentally drained from dealing with and online relationship, please know when to take a step back.
All photos are Ai Imagined
THANKS FOR READING💫