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Is it inappropriate for an old person to have a strictly platonic internet friendship with a young person. No Skyping or pics. Only chatting and emails. Either sex\gender.... Would that make a difference? Let's say their ages are 17 and 34.
| OK | 81 | |
| Wrong | 30 | |
| Both. say why | 7 | |
| Depends on their sex\gender | 9 | |
| I'm a parent and I say OK. | 2 | |
| I'm a parent and I say it's wrong. | 4 | |
| I'm a parent and I say it depends.... | 6 |
This is normal simply because you're just communicating with someone, there isn't any harm in that. As you said, if there isn't anything funny going on then it is no different from communicating with anyone else. It especially doesn't matter in online gaming because that is all you're doing, playing games. I believe saying it is wrong is like telling a 34 year old not to talk to a teen in person, regardless of gender, because it is morally wrong and they should be jailed which is just ridiculous. People of all ages will meet others of all ages in real life quite a lot.
Okay in my books. I am an 18 year old who has a couple of internet friendships (which started when I was 17) with people (male and female) that sort of age and I don't think it's inappropriate at all.
Personally, I don't care if a person is 90 or whatever.
As long as you're nice and aren't asking for my address or anything like that, then you're good to go.
One of my best friendships online is with a person that's 30+ and i was 16 at the time. It isn't creepy because it's just two people talking like friends (neither party is interested in anything more than a friendship)
I get along mostly with people who are older than me, when over the internet. Mostly because a lot of people my age can be jerks- they're online so they think it's an excuse to be a douche without being "caught".
It's only weird if you make it weird, imo. If you don't, then it stays a nice friendship between two people, nothing more, nothing less.
When I was 18 I had a friend online who was about 57. 3 years later we still talk here and there. I don't see anything wrong with being friends with someone who isn't your age.
Perfectly fine.
I look at it this way. A lot of parents (if mine were somewhat normal) and their kids don't really feel comfortable talking about a lot of subjects. However, someone on the Internet can offer non-judgmental advice completely anonymously.
On the internet we seem to have different rules than reality. I remember on YouTube when I was fourteen my friends ranged from age 13-23.
Currently I am in my 20s and I have friends up to 60. So I don't know if it really matters on the internet. Especially when your on a site that attracts multiple age groups. Example Adventure time has audience from 5-60.
So if you go on an Adventure time fan-site you are probably going to get many adults as well as children. In fact there is entire families dedicated to Adventure time. So yeah internet seems to give us a lot more freedom. I usually am a lot nicer to younger members if they want to chat but I don't treat them like they are inferior for being younger. Its kind of rude to pretend the person isn't there when they are sitting in the same chatroom.
However you might face problems if you try to meet some of these younger people. Just be aware of that. Though simply chatting happen especially with sites that attract mixed age groups. So believe me you are probably not doing anything different and I am positive the site doesn't care. Long as you not trying to get in the young ones pants or anything.
I am really fond of the baby boomer generation and also generation x, I love making friends with people significantly older than me. I love it when a friendship can transcend a generation, bridge the gap.
Why shouldn't people who have things in common be friends even if they're also different in some ways? It's no more weird or wrong than being friends with someone of a different ethnicity, national origin, gender, orientation, political party or favorite football team.
I'm actually a little dismayed to see that some people think it's wrong to befriend people of different ages. You really miss out if the only people you talk to are people who look and act just like you in every way, I feel, and that includes age. Not everything is dirty or weird, people.
It depends on the people, but in general a person who's 34 years old has much more life experience than a 17 years old and thus can manipulate them if they wish.
The result you would get here won't really be very reliable as majority of the user will have internet friends as are a active part of this site which suggest they have friendship over the internet.