When do you start to worry...

In My Humble Opinion
1

… about absent on-line friends?

For the last month or so, I’ve chatted and/or exchanged e-mails with an on-line friend. Last time we conversed was Friday evening, and he ended the conversation abruptly. It wasn’t all that unusual, since he has 2 preteen kids who are a priority in his life - he’s signed off before to tend to boo-boos or school activities or other crises that come with kids.

But it’s been 4 days. I’ve not seen him on IM - tho I haven’t been on a lot myself. Nor has he responded to a couple of e-mails - usually he’s very prompt. I don’t have his home phone, and I don’t know that it’d be appropriate to call anyway. Still, I’m a little worried.

Did something happen to one of the kids? His wife? Him? His computer? It occurs to me that I may never know.

It’s also possible that he was an imaginary friend - he could have invented a family to see if he could pull it off. Maybe he got bored with the game.

Or maybe something happened. So I’m fretting a wee bit, trying not to let my over-active imagination fun amok. Sometimes the cyber-world is no fun.

I’m not alone in this, am I?

2

I hate to be this direct but…you mentioned that this was a “friend.” If that were the case, wouldn’t you already have the answers to all your questions?

3

Yeah, you’re right - he couldn’t possibly be a friend. Silly me.

4

The same thing happened to my DH. One day his friend just disappeared. She was teaching him to play bridge or Euchre, I don’t remember which. He was thinking the same things you are, and even sent her a snail mail, to which she never responded. He kept looking for her for about 6 months before he gave up. There is nothing you can do, and worry won’t help anything. It would be nice to have an answer, but people are strange creatures and you may never know.

.:frowning:

Give it a week or two, real life has a way of intruding at the most inopportune times