One thing I find to be common among the benefits listed is gaining confidence and being able to expand your world. Like I said, being someone who suffers from anxiety, being able to communicate online really does boost my confidence. In the article above it also says that by gaining this confidence that the person or child in the example from the article, can feel more comfortable walking into a new experience and having to mee new people. Online communities can also be very diverse so you could learn other cultures from the people themselves, social media could help people get over the culture shock of running into something new.+