Back in the days of AOL and dial-up, the Internet was where I thought pervs, skeezers, and eBay shoppers spent their time. Since then, my mind has changed.
Is it odd that I could dialog with a girl from South Africa currently living in Atlanta without skipping a beat? Or that a married woman with two kids and a working professional woman can sit down and have a conversation as friends who have known each other for years? Yes. Yes, it is odd.
But life is odd. And so is living in community.
Trying to find people who think like you or challenge you is difficult. But there’s nothing worse than doing life alone. So yeah, Internet friends are odd, but so is talking to yourself as you eat your lunch at a table sans a community of friends. I know. I’ve personally been there.
Have you ever met someone in real life who you met on the Internet? Whoa, that totally sounds like Dateline’s How To Catch A Preditor tag line, but you know what I’m saying! If you haven’t, who would you want to meet and why? [I’m nosey. Humor me.]
i've done it so much now, that it's completely normal to me. but at the same time, i'm still in awe of how God continues to blow me away with friendships like this. amazing.
grateful for you, B!
thankful i met you through twitter =]
Girl, WE met through Twitter and haven't had a chance to hang out in a LONG time. Are we ever going to hang out again??? Ha!
Rooted. Me. You. It's on.
I'd like to meet you and your sister. Seems totally stalker-ish but I really would 🙂 LOL
How is that stalkerish? It's totally fun!
Well, that is if you're not a stalker. 😉
OH I SURE HAVE!! Her name was Andrea, we scheduled a Dodger game date with our kids. Her aughter and ny son Gabriel. It was like we had known each other forever!! She gave theeee bestest huggs ever (like jesse from ccm). We laughed so much and sang “take me out to the ballgame” sooo loud and out of key with our arms wrapped aound each other. Our kids wanted to hide under the chairs.
Sadly, she passed way a year later 🙁 in her sleep… i will treasure that memorie for life!
Yes I have! She is now one of my accountability partners. So cool and yes I do love following people on Twitter even if that makes me seem like a stalker.
Luuuuucky! Are you going to share who it is? Why you gotta keep secrets from me?!
I met your sister at a photography workshop, but first I "met" her on Facebook! LOL. yes, it's odd, BUT you get to connect with people who have inspired you in one way or another and it's been awesome! I hope I get to meet you one day Bianca 🙂 oh and I don't mean it in a stalker-ish Dateline way LOL You are full of life, your words are so profound and inspiring. Who wouldn't want to meet you? 🙂
WOOHOO! I think it'd be so fun to meet up with other blog readers and thank them for the community of people we've become. Hmmm… this might turn into a great idea!
I have finally met people in person after connecting with them online. It is a little weird, but also fun! The extrovert in me LOVES IT! I enjoy following your randomness on Twitter. xoxo
You? An extrovert? No way! 😉
YOU! =] seriously. you inspire me a lot. maybe one day we can meet, since you and i live in this nice lil sunshine & smoggy city called LaLaLand.
Oh my word! Do you feel how HOT it is?! UGH!!! I'm melting today.
Who would I want to meet? I would want to meet The Pioneer Woman. Why? Because she is SUPER WOMAN! She cooks, she writes, she photographs, she gardens, she farms, she ropes cattle, and she home schools her kids, and still finds time to travel, and have a social life! Is it wrong that I want to be her when I grow up? By the way I'm 35 and have three kids. Can I get a do-over? LOL.
I can't believe her. Seriously. She makes me feel like an apathetic lop! How in the world does she do it all?! Slap me. Hard.
i've never met someone thru anything online…as far as meeting people…ummm obviously YOU:) and I think it would be cool to meet all the regular commenters here..everyone seems really down to earth and we all have at least one thing in common…trying to get closer to God:)
We should do a meet up one day!!! That would be so much fun 🙂
I have never met anyone in person that I have been following online. I found you through your sister Jasmine (who I want to meet…who I want as my photographer for my daughter's future wedding). I want to meet you, Bianca. You are as real as it gets. I love that you love all things GOD. I loved you from the first time I tuned into your James series. I follow you on Twitter and Facebook. I believe God will make a divine appointment for us. Someday.
Can I just say that as a follower of all of you Twitterers, facebookers, and bloggers, it feels wierd when I see you guys and totally want to talk to you like i KNOW you. Seriously, you put your lives on the internet, and I am intrigued because it makes me feel more normal. Most times, your posts challenge me, encourage me, or inspire me. AND I feel silly; sort of Stalkeresque…But don't stop! I love it!
I met one of my very best friends on a message board when we were both pregnant with our first children. All the women on the board were due at the same month. We have been close friends for almost ten years now. We have met in person once but talk all the time. I love her to death. Can’t imagine life without her!
Honestly, it's still a little sketchy to me but I'm from the country so we're naturally late adopters. Here meeting someone from the internet is as scandelous as a soap opera or Jersey Shore (I'm still scarred from the 10 minutes I wasted on that one…).
However, there are 5 people I would want to meet.
1. Your family. For a family, they're quite plugged in. I've read your dad's blog (and wish I knew where to get his book) and he seemed kind of cool. I've (obviously as a photographer) stalked your sisters blog like most photographers out there and have decided that I would like to meet her. However, I'm pretty sure that all I will do is drool and maybe cry a little. Obviously, I would love to meet you. If you inspire me through 150 written words I can't imagine 15 minutes with you.
(and because my comment was too long)….
2. Rebekah Tillotson. She made herself known to me via your sister's facebook. She's so helpful and seems so sweet! Although, I don't know how much of a dialogue I would have as I'm slowly building a 55 question list for her.
3. Rich, Roz and Jay. I met these guys on an online chat room when I was 13. We've lost touch now but we were the three amigos like…10 years ago. They were friends in real life and I was the foreigner. For all I know they're all the same person…haha
I actually have met some people that have went from your blog and hopped over to mine. I have become good friends with a blog reader of yours that went to my blog, after several blog conversations we met up for lunch and she has become not just one of my blog readers but a friend!
And it was God's timing because at when we started talking she started to go through something that I went through several years back so we were able to be in fellowship together. God is so cool that way…
Well, something I wasn't comfortable admitting until recently… I met my dater-friend online. er,..uh…. I guess that should read my BOYfriend. haha. It was one of those "make a profile or we will make it FOR you instances" but we ended up knowing a lot of the same people and even attended the same college. I guess it's 21st century dating 🙂
But more importantly I 'met' all my photographer friends (who have evolved into my dearest friends and community) online first. They have led me to YOU!
And, on that note, Allie Trowbridge was just visiting me in Boston and we had a long conversation about how we lack inspiring women in our loves but how you have been that online inspiration for us. You have two ladies (who span the internet miles) that admire you and glean from you from a far. Thanks lovey!
last weekend i had the honor and privileged of meeting a couple who i met on the internet… the first thing we said when we saw each other was "you ARE a real person!!"…. i pretty much raved for the next 3 days about how AWESOME it is that God lets lives collide in cool ways via the internet and then sometimes the blessing of "real life" happens!!!!!
yum. it seriously makes me SO happy. twitter. facebook. blogs. i LOVE what God can do through these source!!!!
there are people i've "met" online and am aching to know in real life… You and Jasmine are on that list 😉 hoping someday i'll meet everyone on the list! 🙂
I met a girl back in the AOL chat room days. She was in AZ and I was in CA…as we spoke/wrote in turned out that my church had invited her mother to be the main speaker at the women's retreat…random?!? She was coming with her mom so we got to meet in person! Since the long passed AOL days we kept in touch via email & snail mail. I was able to see her again a few years later, she was now married and her father had passed away. We have had times of communication silence but can always pick up where we left off. __Hmmm…who would I like to meet…
You, Bianca …do you ever come up to Northern CA? I would also like to meet Bobbie Houston (Hillsong Church) she seems so funny & down to earth. I love to meet women in ministry…period.
I've met people that I met online before. (And I go back to the AOL days and then forums, way way before Facebook and Twitter – ha) Most of them didn't turn out to be the same, if ya know what I mean.
And there's this: I had a Twitter account with my old biz with a fairly large following. I found it fun, engaging, made online friends and talked to real life ones through there too. But often, I find the 'real life' people know what's going on so they really don't 'follow' all that much online or talk there. And then, it kind of became a 'time vacuum' that just sucked up all this time resulting in connections, yes….but not ones that were really enriching, you know?
So I took a full two months off from any social media activity at all and as for Twitter, started a new account with a new way of looking at it. I find it difficult for me to prioritize getting on there (especially since I refuse to text with other people or Twitter when I'm with people, I just feel like they're supposed to be the focus, you know?) …..and when I do, I sometimes catch cool stuff but sometimes……
So I'm kind of ambivalent.
Having said THAT, there are a couple of people I wouldn't mind meeting in real life if the opportunity arose. Esther Havens, David DuChemin…..you, Alece, and Lindsay Nobles would all seem awesome…..my friend I've talked (phone) with regularly and feel I've gotten to know, Desiree Adaway, who is amazing…..and Scott Harrison (because I'd be doing something awesome with charity: water, of course) 😉
I still have that mindset that meeting people through the internet is weird, but you've broadened my thinking, slightly. Honestly, I'm just scared & I could not possibly say to my husband "I'm meeting a few peeps I met on the internet at Starbucks". He and old folks will just not understand…
Back to your Q: I would love to meet you and your sister, a handful of artists using photography & video as their medium, this bubbly girl talking about make up on youtube, and actually your blog followers.
Woohoo! In the words of Walt Disney, it's a small world after all 🙂
So glad we can get to know each other even more.
Praying for you both!
YES!! Actually about a week ago I got to meet a friend that I have been chatting with online for a year and I also got to reconnect with someone who I haven't seen in soo many years so that's kinda the same thing. It is so fun to get to meet someone who you've talked with for so long but haven't ever met face to face. It's nice to finally be able to connect a voice with their inner voice. lol 😉 Have a greatly blessed night!! 🙂
So I think it’s a given that you are one person I would love to meet! 🙂 Alece is another person I can’t wait to meet!
Oh! I have met a couple people from Twitter so far!
i met a girl online and traveled to canada to meet her! we had a great time! then she went to mexico to my house for christmas 🙂 we're still bestfriends, and she is ten years older than me ( i went when i was 17, i am 20 now)
Hi B.
I've met a few times people from the internet, but not sooo often.
But I really want to meet YOU next year. 🙂
Wish you all the best,
Markus 🙂
Facebook is a really great way to meet women. They are somewhat prescreened if you are meeting women through your friends. It is a great way to build your social circle. You can find women with similar beliefs to you.
I have met a few people in person that I've met online. Of course I'd love to meet you! There is also this band that I'm in LOVE with called Johnnyswim that I would love to meet… they have a small fan base so it's possible! 😉 I'd also love to meet Marie Forleo, your friend Brianna- she's a hoot on her blog and she's the reason I even knew you and your sis existed!!! I'd love to meet your sis, Lara Casey… and the list goes on! 😉
Love that we met, that we can keep up with each other online, and that we have had so many opportunities pop up to keep up the IRL relationship. Next up…Catalyst.
Thanks so much for taking the time out of your CRAZY BUSY schedule to play some Taboo with me and some friends.
i just saw this post, hiding back here.
am i the married woman you are talking about? love you. you are my seriously one of my favorite people.
oh and i have your game on my dining room table.
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