As time goes by we clearly see that Online interactions are moving up at a rapid speed. The Social Media presence in everyone's life is increasing and for some it is also becoming an important part of life. Specially for those who run their small time businesses through Social Media. But then that's a different thing alltogether. People are getting more and more drawn towards the use of Social Media platforms, specially Instagram is buzzing these days with stories and reels. As the use increases so does interactions.
There was a time when I would receive hardly one or two friend request in a week, and now I receive some daily 5 to 6 friend request. Normally it is my habit to not accept any friend request from people I do not know on any platforms, but these days I have a different approach. Because I have started looking at some other aspects also when making online friends.
What I specifically look at when building online friendship are these 3 important things:
1 - Do I know the person - This is my most important check. But as I mentioned I am not being rigid about it. So then my second check is
2- Do I have any common friends with this person - This also matters to me, because then I somewhere feel secured that the person I am going to connect with is not a complete stranger and I can do some background checks also if needed. But again here, I would not connect with anyone who shows up in common friends list. There is this vibe thing also, if I feel that I connect, else just ignore
3- If none of these 2 are there, then my third check is on what is the person's profession. If there's anything that links us like Yoga, Meditation, Travelling, then I do connect with the person.
I also have one more check, the 4th one.
4- Check through the pictures - Nowadays what happens is that the profiles are secured, so unless you do not accept the friend request you do not get to see the pictures. If I approve friend request on the 3rd basis, then once it is approved I scroll through the pictures. Check how old the profile is. If there are family pictures and other decent pictures I have no issues going ahead. If I find anything fishy, I immediately unfriend and block the account.
Yes I can say that I am a very safe player, I do not like to go out an explore much when it comes to the virtual world. I believe in Real world and Real people. I would want to see the person, hear the person and feel the person. The Online world is not really my cup of tea. So in the first place I do not encourage complete strangers in my space. And I also believe in that first vibe while connecting with the person.
A lot of fake accounts are created with some very luring pictures, but if you check it out in detail you will understand that these are not genuine ones. They are created just a couple of months back and then they put some very attractive solo pictures, all together. These kind of profiles I immediately block them.
These are my ways of safeguarding my own interest. With the increased use of Social Media we also see many frauds happening, people come out of nowhere and then they come into your life and cheat you as well. It is very important to be careful while making online friendships. Specially the younger generation, they do get carried away when they start using these platforms. It is all fresh and exciting for them and then they become easy targets for some who have criminal minds and have wrong intentions of cheating people.
So how do you go ahead selecting your online friends?
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I agree with all your point mentioning here but sometimes people send us request to be added because of social influencing . people follow or send request because they like to read or take interest in our contents or activities.
True, so as I mentioned, there is something like common interest acceptance as well. But when we find anything fishy it is best to block such people