"I Get on a Bus & I'm Walking Towards the Back & Sit Down Next to a Beautiful Blonde Girl..."

Brooke Fasani. Getty Images.

Over the course of my brief social media history, I've made some friends on Facebook and Twitter, people I've never met in person, and probably never will.

I've maintained friendships with total strangers that, surprisingly, go far beyond simply liking each other's posts. There have been in-depth conversations during challenging times, some I don't think I could've had with a majority of my actual lifelong friends.

It reminds me of the joke Steven Wright told back in the '80s…

"I get on a bus, and I'm walking towards the back and sit down next to a beautiful blonde Chinese girl." 

I said, "Hello," and she said, "Hello." 

I said, "Isn't it an amazing day?" and she said, "Yes, yes, I guess…" 

I said, "What do you mean you guess?" 

She said, "Things haven't been going too well for me lately." 

I said, "Like what?" 

She said, "I can't tell you, I don't even know you."

"Yeah, but sometimes it's good to tell your problems to an absolute total stranger on a bus…" 

She said, "I've just come back from my analyst, and he's still unable to help me…" 

I said, "What's the problem?" 

She paused and said, "I'm a nymphomaniac, and I only get turned on by Jewish cowboys…"

 And then she said, "By the way, my name is Dianne." 

"Hello Dianne, I'm Bucky Goldstein…" 

Wright's lighthearted look at random encounters on a bus isn't too unlike random encounters on the internet. Telling your problems to total strangers is risky, but it can be a lot easier than reaching out to real-life established friends because, in some cases, strangers are more willing to listen, and there aren't as many after-effects.

I've made a couple of such friends on Facebook and one on Twitter. 

I was searching Facebook for a foreign exchange student from Mexico I graduated high school with, so I searched his host family, thinking he must've established a social media friendship with them. 

When I saw Carlos's full name on one of the siblings' friend lists, I immediately sent him a friend request, which he accepted. 

During our first conversation, I asked how he was doing and then what he's been up to since graduating high school. Shortly after that, we both realized he wasn't who I thought he was, but since we had a common friend, why not keep the friendship? Carlos and I have been friends for close to 10 years, and he always reads my jokes and blogs and makes lengthy comments. He's become a positive influence in my life, and I'm happy he had the same name as a high school friend and that the mistaken identity led to a friendship.

I can't even remember how Earl and I met, whether he sent me a friend request or I sent him one, but for whatever reason, we became FB friends. I've grown to expect his lengthy responses to my blogs and posts, and he never disappoints. Being close in age, we've had some interesting conversations about life and health, some I've never had with my real friends. Earl's the absolute total stranger on the bus who became a social media friend and much more.

I met Justin on Twitter, and he's been there for me during several health crises. It helps that he's an MD, and I highly respect his opinions, but it goes far beyond health and family; we talk sports and politics, exchange texts, and speak on the phone. I've never met him in person, but our friendship is strong despite that. He's a Giants fan, and now, because of what happened in New England to the Patriots in 2023, we have even more in common. 

Despite social media, as I've gotten older, I've lost touch with a great number of lifelong friends, and trying to reconnect after long absences is difficult. A lot of my retired friends are busier now than they were when they still worked, and they don't have time to talk anymore. 

Someone once said, "If you have one friend, consider yourself lucky. If you have two, consider yourself even luckier. If you have three, you have none…" While I don't totally agree with that, I get the point. Good friends are hard to find. Random friends made on the internet aren't a bad alternative. I think they're just as important as real-life friendships, and in some cases, even more so…

"You might want to strike up a conversation with the next beautiful blonde Chinese girl you see on a bus because you never know if her analyst was able to help her." - Bucky Goldstein

Ian Ross Pettigrew. Getty Images.