When I think about the word pen pal the image that used to come to mind was, sitting at my desk in the third grade and writing to a kid in another country at the request of my teacher. Well today, when you think about a penpal, there is a completely new definition. The term pen pal today, for most adults anyway has nothing to do with a pen or writing a letter. It does however have everything to do with the Internet. Today if you do a search on the search engine Google using the word pen pal, you will find there are 4,990,000 websites results and another 2,260,000 results for the word penpal.
That doesn't even include phrases like international penpal or Internet penpal. The word pen pal stems from a time when we didn't have telecommunication. There was no cell phones, text messaging or Internet. It was a time when the only way to get a message to another person was to actually set down and write them a letter. Meeting people was different as well. People would got to social events, hop's, or cruise the main drag to meet someone of the opposite sex. However, all that has changed. Now all anyone has to do is log on, type in the word pen pal and with-in the blink of an eye, find millions of sites to join and find a friend, lover or even a soul mate. Every one of the millions of WebPages behind the search engines is a new opportunity to meet new people. Could you imagine going out cruising the night away in hopes of finding some special person only to waist the evening and end up alone and empty handed?
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I couldn't, well not in this day and age. Meeting some one in the day of the Internet penpal is a lot easier.Things seem to progress and try to make our life easier. Things like dating, it used to be, after you went out to the social event of the season and met someone special, you would go out together on what was called a date. You do remember dating, don't you? Well in the age of the Internet pen pal its not just dating anymore it is, "Internet dating". In theory, Internet Dating can be a good thing. You can search for, and find a penpal site, register and join, fill out a profile and answer a bunch of compatibility questions. Then more then likely within a very short time some one will show interest in you. There is one draw back of finding someone to date online though. You can never be 100% sure that the person you have met online is really who and what they say they are. As with anything that is potentially good, there is also a dark side.
Unfortunately with all of the good, honest and lonely people surfing the penpal and Internet dating sites, there are a few that would use these internet date and penpal sites to harm and take advantage of the good folks that are only trying to ease their loneliness and find love.If you have joined a penpal site and are looking to find an Internet date, remember a few simple rules that can save you from a lot of grief. § The first thing you should do when a potential internet date contacts you online is check out their profile read it and see it they have a photo of them self's posted.
- The next thing is, take your time. Email back and forth for a while. Get to know everything that you can about your penpal.
- Do not ever give out personal information. Do not give your address, where you work or any information that could allow some stranger to find you.
- Never meet anyone that you have met on the Internet until you have had a long while to get to know that person, and never meet the person alone for the first time. Also never, meet anybody that you do not know in a lonely desolate place, always meet in a well-lit crowed place with lots pf people around.
- Don't send money to someone you have met online, for that matter never give money to anyone that you have just started dating...
- If you feel or think something is not right when you meet a pen pal on line for the first time or at any time for that matter, stop contact and report them to the webmaster or administrator of the Internet Penpal website immediately. With caution and a bit of common sense Internet dating can be a safe place to find a pen pal and hook up with someone just right for you.
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