GROUP Chat

The ubiquity of digital communication and social media platforms has given rise to a new form of community that, while different, is no less meaningful than real-life friendship.

- JESSLYN LYE

When I was 14, a school trip brought me to Kuala Lumpur, where an online friend resided. My classmates and I broke a long list of rules to sneak her into our hotel for a supper hangout. We cooked instant noodles in a kettle that was not meant for anything more than boiling water, and when a teacher came knocking on our door, we hid her in the bathroom with the shower running to avoid suspicion. In retrospect, I recognise that what we did was reckless, but it remains one of the brightest memories I have of my secondary school days.

Like most digital natives, I grew up being warned off speaking to strangers on the Internet. But the reality is that I’ve spent nearly the entirety of my adolescence dwelling in digital communities—first in fandom forums and Tumblr community blogs, then in Twitter group chats and Discord servers.

For those who engage in them, these virtual networks can become intrinsic parts of their lives. Hence, it’s unsurprising to me when I hear people say that they cherish their online community just as much as they do their offline ones. Over the years, I’ve witnessed friends—both online and in real life—meet their significant others for the first time on the Internet. To escape a toxic household, an old classmate of mine saved up for months to book a flight to London, where friends whom he’d only spoken to through screens opened their homes to him without question.