When I was younger, I had a pen pal. Anyone remember those? I wrote a couple of letters to him, and he would respond. I wrote those letters on the coolest Harry Potter stationery, it had Hedwig on it and everything. He lived in Trenton, New Jersey (and the fact that I remember that is absolutely mind-blowing). Billy was his name. I wrote to Billy for what I seem to remember as a year or so, before we kind of just stopped writing each other and never spoke again.

Now, fast forward about ten years. The concept of a pen pal is almost entirely dead - I guarantee that most people in high school and younger may not have even heard that phrase. The concept was amazing, though! To be able to write and communicate with someone who could potentially be on the other side of the planet? It opened the possibility for a younger person to gain culture and insight into another area, one that they had never seen and may never see in their life. The internet effectively killed the idea of a pen-pal. It destroyed it.

However, it was replaced by something much more capable and consistent- sometimes called an e-pal or keypal. The internet, in its sweeping omnipotence and world wide reach, has opened communication channels in a million different ways to an unspeakable amount of people. It allowed not only for people to communicate, but people to find others who were interested in exactly what they were interested in. Love birdhouses? There’s a group for that. Love silent films? That too. You can find a group or blog or forum for ANYTHING on the internet, and this expanded on the idea of a pen pal: it allowed for people who were thousands of miles apart to connect, communicate, and learn.

Some people to this day feel that making friends online is a strange, hilarious attempt at human interaction. Honestly, I’ve always thought that the circumstances of meeting someone have almost zero play into what makes up your relationship. I don’t even remember my first meeting with a lot of friends I’ve had face to face- not that I don’t want to, it’s just not something you try and keep track of every time. More importantly, it is how the meeting goes, not how you meet them. One of the strongest connections you can have with someone is common goals or interests, of course, and none beat the passion of people sharing an interest in a video game- that, I can attest to.

To this day, I have two pen-pals by way of the internet. I have them on Facebook, I talk to them and comment on their posts like I do any of my friends from school or home. To me, they have never been distant, despite the fact that none of us have ever met in reality. Nothing about our relationships are anything different from one of someone you met in high school or work. Despite the fact that my time has started to dry up for games, with school and work in full swing, CJ from New York and Justin from Texas remain people that I consider friends despite time or distance. I completely don’t even remember what games I met them on, it just happened. My school friends have always had a tight knit group that hasn’t changed much over the years. We still play, even though some of us are in different areas, and someone at some point picked up Justin and CJ and they just became regulars, part of our gang, just as much a friend as the ones who’s house I spent the night at and who’s parents I met.

Pen pals were obviously the only option for years, but they fall short of allowing you to REALLY know someone. I feel like I haven’t missed a beat on either of their lives since I’ve known them because it’s immediate, you don’t have to write, mail and wait like you did. They’re a Skype call away. I got to know their interests, heard about their families, and hilariously we call both of them more often by their online names than we do their real names, but that’s just how we learned who they were.

I’m interested to see where everything goes with virtual reality and all the advancements in technology and entertainment we’re seeing. It could be possible someday to step into someone’s house from miles away, and converse face to face. Technology isn’t always an absolute blessing, but it’s given me two good friends that I never would have met otherwise.