The Time I Met Internet People and They Weren’t Creepers

Most of us 20-somethings were raised in an environment where the internet was very new.  New = not trustworthy for most people.  We first got the internet when I was in grade 6 and it was the greatest dial-up thing since sliced bread.  But my parents informed me that I was not allowed on chat rooms where I didn’t know the other people in real life first, and my Dad had to check everything I did online first, like opening an e-mail account or starting my first webpage (which was obviously Backstreet Boys themed).  We grew up hearing the sensationalized news stories about the dangers of the internet, a place where people can pretend to be anything they want and 50-year-old men lure small children into their homes.  Growing up, for me at least, the internet was a dangerous place.  I’ve been online now for 13 years.  I consider myself somewhat internet savvy.  I’ve had more websites than I care to remember, I’m part of way too many social networking sites, I even tried my hand at online dating, but still, my childhood internet wariness lingers.

This weekend I did something that I never thought I would do.  I think even now, my parents would have been horrified to know what I did.  In fact, I spent the escalator ride up to the restaurant laughing at how crazy it was.  I met up with people from the internet…. like in real life.  And they were all who they said they were – not creepy 50-year-old men.  And I didn’t get kidnapped or killed.  And they all seemed relatively normal.  And I liked them all (thank GOODNESS, because I was secretly really scared I wouldn’t like them and then wouldn’t even be able to blog about the fact that I met these people who I didn’t like).

I’ve been blogging here for over a year now, and I joined 20 Something Bloggers shortly after I started blogging here.  Through 20SB I’ve met some amazing people and lived vicariously through some of them as they went to the Vegas, Chicago and New York meet ups this past year and had fantastic times.  I started the Toronto 20 Somethings group of 20SB because my area of the Great White North didn’t have a group to represent it, and I’ve watched in awe as my little group has grown from being just me to the current total of 52 members.

After we watched the meet-ups our southern neighbours were attending turn out so successfully, someone in our group suggested we have one.  To be honest, I was terrified.  Me?  Going to a blogger meet-up?  The introvert in my had a complete freak out at that.  I did not want to be a part of such an event.  But I didn’t say that out loud (or should I say type it out loud?), mostly because it’s a little bit rude, but also because I started that group and felt responsible for it, and because I’d been reading what these people have to say for months and kind of wanted to meet them.  So I made up my mind to give it a shot.  We planned it down to the last detail.  A central location, a date and time that most people could make, who’s going to make reservations, the fact that we would have appetizers and drinks instead of full meals – everything.  My fellow bloggers confirmed their attendance so I knew I wouldn’t be sitting alone at the restaurant waiting for my internet friends.  We were set.

I second guessed myself the whole way there.  Who was I?  What the heck was I doing?  This SO wasn’t something I do.  But I made it there.  The hostess at the restaurant told me my group was at their table and pointed me in the right direction saying I couldn’t miss them.  I fought the urge to inform her that I didn’t actually know what most of them looked like, so me missing them was actually very likely.  I got to the table and they recognized me and I knew who was who just by looking at them, I knew about their lives and they knew about mine.  “How’s your cat liking his new litter box?” is a bizarrely intimate question from someone who you’ve never actually met before.  All of a sudden, they weren’t so scary, and I realized that I didn’t actually ever have anything to be nervous about.

We were 8 completely different people, we come from different places and do different things.  Really, what we have in common was the fact that we’re around the same age, live in roughly the same place, and we post stuff about our lives on the internet.  But it’s more than that, I think.  It’s about being interested in other people, and sharing a way of looking at life as potential stories to be shared, and finding new ways to connect to people in an increasingly disconnected world.  We weren’t really strangers at all, really, even before I got there I could have told you stories about each of these people’s lives.  I realized that I was so darn nervous about meeting these people because I already cared about them – I’ve devoted hours to reading their blog posts, following their tweets about their lives… I think I was nervous because deep down I can still remember my parents’ internet warnings and I didn’t want these people to be creepy 50-year-old men because I care about these people and the relationships we’ve built, because they know things like my cat’s name and because I’ve talked about my feelings with them and I didn’t want that not to be real.  And possibly because they don’t judge me for run-on sentences and they’re okay with the fact that I’m not very classy most of the time but still like me in spite of it.

Needless to say, none of them were creepers.  We talked and laughed and ate and drank, and I could talk about blogging and geeky internet stuff without feeling embarrassed or having to preface my sentences with “I know it’s nerdy, but…”.  It was refreshing.

In attendance were (in order pictured below):

Erika, Still Searching (I forget if I’m allowed to use a real name for our anonymous friend.  But I’m posting the pictures, which may defeat the purpose…), Reggie, Lisa, myself, Jason, and Lindsay.

We made the waiter take a group shot, he made Erika move her crutches first.

Seeing as the whole group shot was a little dark, we did shots of each side of the table

We had to try 2 times for this, because Lisa was on Sudafed and couldn't keep her eyes open.

See?  Look!  They’re real people!  No 50-year-old creepers in the group!  All that happened was that I got to put faces and voices and mannerisms to these people who I already knew.

We missed all of you other Toronto 20 Somethings who couldn’t make it, and we’re threatening that you’d better make it out to the next one – you all still need to prove that you’re not creepers.  Crap, I said next one.  Yeah, there will likely be a next one.  Though if we keep having these I might have to come out of the blogging closet officially to my IRL friends who are going to start wondering what I’m up to and how I know these people I’m meeting up with.  I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.  For now, all I can say is that the internet isn’t full of creepers pretending to be 20SB-ers, so you guys who haven’t been to a meet up should probably tell that introvert in you to shut up and get yourself out to one – you’ll be glad you did.