Age, Sex, Location - Longreads

Chatrooms taught me everything I needed to know about what real people were like before I had to grow up and become one of them.

This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Kira Homsher | Longreads | March 14, 2023 | 3,308 words (12 minutes) My childhood best friend broke, and still holds, the Guinness World Record for fastest text written on a QWERTY mobile phone. Though I never came close to matching her speed, it was only natural that I should absorb her enthusiasm for messaging. She was also one of the most private people I knew, with an uncanny ability to create and compartmentalize disparate personas to charm all sorts of people, and much of her social life took place

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