Are your Facebook friends actually your friends?

It is comforting to be able to share your thoughts on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, but it can also be dangerous. Not only because people may use the information against you, but also because virtual friends may not be your friends at all. They may ignore your cry for help, or even make fun of you for it.

Simone Back, 42, posted a last message on the social networking site at 10.53pm on Christmas Day saying: "Took all my pills be dead soon bye bye everyone."
Some users of the site even taunted the 42-year-old over her final status update instead of trying to save her, calling her a “liar” and saying the fatal overdose was “her choice”...
While some Facebook friends from out of town begged online for her address and telephone number so they could get help, none of those who lived closer did anything to help.
Several friends taunted the charity shop worker as she lay dying on the floor of her flat. Just minutes after the post a “friend” replied “She ODs all the time and she lies.”

It is yet another reason to be cautious of virtual relationships. And another reason to get out of the house and into a church/synogogue/etc. to find people who really care about you.