Wrong. I would like to say that your judgement is quite an accusation. I am not a stupid person. I have always guarded my anonymity even after 2 years of talking, and even when they asked us to break it many times. I would have waited 10 years for me to start breaking that rule, even when I knew them so well because that is what it is, the internet is not a safe place. I knew who they are, I knew which university they went to. Unlike me, they didn't guard anonymity as well as I did, they only kept it because I did. I knew their first name, I have seen their pictures which happened by THEIR mistake. For example, once we were arguing and to help me talk to him again M sent me a screenshot of his phone where there was my messages (notifications) saying how much he meant to me or something like that. I hardly say these things to him, and he knew I always have these walls so he wanted to remind me so he sent me that. He forgot that there was a folder called 'My family' at the bottom right and the icon was a picture of him and his parents. He almost wanted to leave after that mistake, even when he never cared much about anonymity. But because he didn't want to reveal to me anything unless I do, it bothered him for a bit but then he chose to just laugh about it. These are common mistakes they would make. I have also seen H's pictures from his university emails which happened to be forwarded to all his contacts, inviting them to join the university alumni - this happened when we stopped talking and before he went to Italy to continue his masters. I have even helped making a note for his studies once when the exams was too much for him to handle - even when I do biology and NOT engineering. He shared his project report with me too.

I would like to highlight that I am skeptic about 'online friends' as well. These two stumbled into my life by accident. I kept them a secret from family and friends, because I know how people looked down on these things. Heck, even I did. Smart people don't do these things, or need it. Which is why i never did look for them in the first place. All I wanted was to engage in online discussions and debates, meet people around the globe and see different perspectives. and we are all 24 by coincidence. We talked everyday and that involves being each other's diary and knowing what is going on. And we don't talk about weathers or music or things like that, we talk about life, what is happening in the world, ideas, what happened in their lives and mine and how it affects us. our fears, our hopes. those things. you can't pretend in these kind of conversations.