Virtual Cafes: Trend Brings Virtual Coffee, Friends to You

The Internet is amazing. Where else can you find such a wealth of knowledge and connect with people you would never have met otherwise? Now, virtual cafés are popping up where people can get together to have a virtual coffee and cake (no calories online) and chat about the kids, work or life in general.

Why would you hit up a café online when you could just go to Starbucks down the street? As more and more people begin to work from home, the social aspect of work is waning. If you are sitting in front of your computer all day, it can be quite difficult to maintain your outside contacts and in some cases, you might not even have any to maintain. In this case, you will find yourself emailing and talking to other writers, bloggers, freelancers, etc.

A virtual café is just a place to hang out, often in the comments section of a blog on a specific topic, such as Grow Your Writing Business, which hosts a Writer's Café each weekend. There, freelance writers are free to gather and discuss their successes and disappointments, techniques and ideas. It is just one example of an ever growing community of people who are getting together online.

Cafés aren't the only place to meet up with friends and fellow work at home parents. You can also schedule meetings super easily these days, with the huge selection of chat programs that allow for group chats. It is really as simple as picking a date and time, then starting a conversation between two people and inviting everyone else as they log on. These virtual meetings are a great way to find out what everyone is up to and you can even set up group projects with weekly goal meetings.

For not so virtual meetings and chats, you can even go with Skype, which allows conference calls. There is a big difference between typing or texting and speaking to each other by voice. In fact, if there are just two of you, most programs allow you to do a video chat, where you can talk to each other and use webcams to see each other. The technology is great for those who work from home, whether you are connecting with business partners or just chatting with a fellow blogger.

Anyone who thought the Internet would turn out a lot of lonely people obviously never thought that we would one day have the capability of speaking face to face with someone halfway around the world! This allows anyone to speak to anyone, provided they both have an internet connection. It is truly amazing and well worth ordering yourself a piece of virtual cake and a cup of joe, then sit back and chat away with your e-friends.