I guess it all started when I was six, when I first read ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’ Harry was a source of inspiration and wonder when I was younger; all I needed to be happy was the idea of leaving home, going to Hogwarts and finding more fantastic adventures than my seven year-old mind could think of on its own. Harry was my only comfort on lonely summer days. Hermione was my best friend and George Weasley was my date to the Yule Ball. No one quite understood the fascination I had with the books, but towards the end of my freshman year, I found the Harry Potter YouTube community. I found people who know Harry the same way I do and who have always been considered (and consider themselves) nerds.
These are the best friends I’ve ever made, even if I’ve never seen them in real life.
I have Internet friends in Texas, Wisconsin and Kentucky; in Miami, Boston and Indianapolis. Some people have friends at Miege or Olathe — my friends are just a tad farther away. It’s easy to make friends online. Typically, I know if I like someone before even speaking. From Twitter, YouTube videos and blogs, it’s easy to get a sense of someone’s personality. It’s easy to tell what makes that person laugh and cringe. Favorite books, Hogwarts house, preferred hot drink: it’s all on the table before the conversation even starts.
It’s not as if my friends are hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet. They have names, I’ve seen their faces and heard their voices on YouTube. None of these people will end up on ‘To Catch a Predator.’  No, I’m not even remotely afraid that the 17 year-old Harry-Potter-loving boy from Webb City, Missouri is actually a creepy 47 year-old man who will find my house and kill me. Said 17 year-old was my homecoming date. I told him the dance theme was “Yule Ball,” which was all the convincing he needed to make the three hour drive. He wore his Ravenclaw tie, and I donned my Gryffindor dress. It was a match made in heaven.
I’m not stalking AIM chat rooms specifically looking for new friends. I appreciate a person’s wittiness and humor from Twitter or YouTube and just start a conversation. Before too long, we’re close friends. The long distance doesn’t even phase me.
But thanks to technology, the distance doesn’t have to be such a big deal. There is a value in seeing people in real life, but Skype, an instant messaging program, and $15 webcams aide the illusion of real life. Dozens of people can enter a conference call. Instead of hundreds of miles, we can pretend it’s just a few blocks. Now we’re just waiting for Smell-O-Vision.
It’s a compromise. I can either have real life friends who roll their eyes instead of laugh, or I can have clever, witty and understanding friends who I will probably never see in person. But we’re proud of our nerdiness and wit. Our inside jokes and Internet lingo make it seem as though we’re speaking (well, typing) a different language. “IRL” stands for “in real life,” “URL” is “on the Internet,” being “unmanly” means going to sleep early (as in before 3 a.m.), and “Cat-I-Tude” is the name of a Skype chat room. The talking never stops. At least one person is online at all times. Summer nights and weekends see an active Cat-I-Tude until 5 a.m.. We frequent the multiplayer gaming website OMGpop, playing Draw My Thing, a game comparable to Pictionary.
Valerie in Elryia, Ohio, is reading the Harry Potter series for the first time. Everyone in Cat-I-Tude is working to annotate the series for her. I’m working on ‘Prisoner of Azkaban,’ making my clever remarks in the book’s pages. I got the book from Hawaii, via Cat-I-Tude member Geri, who filled it with purple ink and highly inappropriate Harry Potter pick-up lines.
Another group of friends — affectionately called the Bookworms — had a gift exchange for Christmas. I sent a joke CD and a Dave Eggers book to Evelyn, alias Eevee, in Texas. Paul (St. Louis) sent me a book and a pink stress ball. The seven of us Bookworms have been friends since 2008. At the speed technology changes, that’s at least a decade in Internet years.
Sometimes it’s hard. Seeing someone IRL every day makes it easy to keep in touch. A quick “Hey, how are you?” in the hallway is all it takes to catch up and stay friends. URL, the friendship is much more fragile. If someone’s too busy for homework to log in and check Twitter or drop in on Skype, it can destroy a friendship so delicately balanced between fast Internet connections and good cell phone service. But that dedication and constant connection make the friendships more intimate. After only a few weeks, people have transformed from just a username on the computer screen into a staple in my life.
These Internet friends of mine are just teenagers. They’re not weird or malfunctioning IRL. They have dads who worry about them and homework to complain about, just like everyone here at school. They, like me, found a community of people who share common interests. A community who embraces learning and doesn’t care about Lindsay Lohan’s arrest record. Just because the community isn’t in “real” life doesn’t mean they aren’t “real” friends.

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