I yawned as I threw the covers off my bed and ran to the computer. The computer blipped as the screen flashed to life. It took a couple minutes to load, but when it was finally ready I did what I always did.
Logged onto the chat room.
The people there greeted me, and we started talking. Just about anything, sports, TV shows, video games. It didn’t even think of what could happen in that chat room. What would happen…?
I didn’t know any of these people in real life; they were just online “friends.” Or at least, they were supposed to be. They were supposed to be my friends, supposed to be nice, kind, funny. At least, I used to think that. But what happened? What happened to the online “friendship”?
This is what happened.
I logged on, just like any other day. I was greeted with hellos and heys and welcome backs. I smiled as I typed the words into the box, “Hey, what’s up?” Some people responded with smiley faces, some just said “nothing much,” But one person who I had never met spoke up.
“Who the heck are you?”
“I go on this chat room every day,” I responded politely, “You must be new if you don’t know me.” He typed an angry smiley into the chat followed by “Well, I’m the owner of the chat. I don’t know you so get out.” I was extremely insulted by this, and at the same time curious as to why he wouldn’t want me in the chat. It was just a chat after all.
“I said get out.”
“No,” I responded bluntly. The people I knew as my friends started swearing at me, throwing insults at my face. I was disgusted, and at the same time hurt. I thought they were my friends, not enemies. What happened to the hellos, heys, and welcome backs? Where did that go, where did all these new, cruel, mean words come from? These people liked me 5 minutes ago, now they hated me. They started calling me a baby for not leaving, a show off trying for trying to stand up for myself, stupid for not doing what the owner told me to do. Suddenly, I felt like the most hated person in the world.
And tears started to flow down my cheeks.
What had I done to these people? What did I do to deserve the torment of their teasing? What had I done…? I logged off the chat room, I didn’t want to read their twisted, cruel lies they were throwing at me.
And I turned the computer back on the next day.
“You have email,” the computer said as soon as I had switched it on. Curious, I clicked the email button on the corner of my screen and my email quickly filled the screen. It was filled with emails from my “friends.” And the emails were filled with lies, hatred, and cruelty. I felt so angry, frustrated. My email kept filling up with these bully emails.
“You’re so stupid; you should have never gone on this chat”
“You’re a freaking crybaby. Go and cry to your mommy, wimp.”
“You try to be cool, but you never will be. Never go on the chat ever again.”
“Why the hell did you even join? You’re nothing but a stupid noob who only signed up to annoy us.”
“You’re such a retard.”
Tears filled my eyes as I read them, one by one. The hatred filled the computer screen. This was too far, the insults in the chat room were enough, but now this? What had happened to the online “friendship”?
The mistake that I made…
I signed up to that chat.
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User
