One advantage of living in this digital age is that making friends all over the world has now become easier, some of them we get to meet eventually, others we still hope to see someday, and some others we just stop communicating with due to personal reasons or reasons beyond you.

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I can't count the number of online friends I've made over the years, right from the inception of social media apps such as 2go, Facebook, Whatsapp, and even our very Hive blockchain. Making friends online has made the world borderless. There is easy learning and sharing of each other's perspective and culture, thereby bringing people closer to understanding how things are done in other parts of the world. This connection also brings about growth financially, people also find love online, as I've witnessed several couples who had their first meeting online.

But as with almost everything in life, there will always be people with bad intentions, who are on the lookout for vulnerable people to attack, the reason why while making friends and connecting with several people, it is important for us to be cautious of our activities and information we divulge to our online friends, because you can't always trust someone too easily, if our physical friends can betray us, how much more friends we might not even be sure if their display picture matches their identity, so therefore, maintaining healthy relationships/connections and making sure that it never gets beyond what it should be like become toxic or we become a victim of negative circumstance should be a conscious effort from us, some of the efforts I make includes

Knowing when to set boundaries, I once had a male friend I met on Facebook, at first it seemed like a harmless chit-chat, getting to know someone from another state, but when he began to intrude, asking questions that were too private and even asking that I sent a picture of myself in undies, like its any different from taking nudes, like he tried to convince me, I quickly had to block him till date, he posed as someone of my age group, which I doubt, considering I was in my late teens then, If I wasn't wise enough to know where to set boundaries, I would probably be restless today thinking about an unknown person that has my private pictures, even though the world today makes it seem like a normal thing to do, trust me it isn't as such picture is often used to blackmail you when you are at your peak.

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Another way is to be emotionally intelligent to know how to read people you often chat with, I believe this is a skill anyone who is a part of the online world should master, you don't have to be a psychologist to be able to read people and know the kind of vibe they exude, though I don't judge people based on the type of lifestyle or thoughts on a thing when I begin to get a form of negative vibe, I am quick to caution myself what I discuss with you, or take a cue to use the exit button out of that space.

Thank you for reading.❤❤