I’m old enough to have not had a ton of friends before the internet.
Same. Although, I was in school back then, which kind of forces you to talk to people. The best way to make friends is to regularly see people. It is still hard, for me it is still a pretty rigged game of who I “click” with, but without you will never find out.
Actually, I was just thinking I should get off the internet more often.
I have lots of acquaintances and people with whom I’m friendly but few real friends… And I think that’s fine. I’ve never felt the need to spend tons of time around others or have tons of friends.
The getting off the internet thing is good. Usergroups and meetups can be a great place if you need socialization.
What little tolorence I have for social interactions is 100% due to the internet. If I can’t hit the power button to make y’all go away I want nothing to do with you.
Yes. I miss calling friends on the landline and asking them to meet up. Being an adult, people live further away than they did in school, so it won’t be as easy, but yeah. I feel we’d be more willing to meet in person than on e.g. discord.
Nope. I’m a only child who moved a lot. I don’t struggle with loneliness, I’m okay being alone.
Nope. I don’t have any friends in IRL.
No, the people around me are mostly racists, sexists, and bigots. If it wasn’t for the internet, I wouldn’t be able to find my people without moving far away.
Midwest/deep south eh?
No, not really. Personally, think that friendships are very shallow these days. Only a handful of people or even less can be truly called friends that would be there for you when you genuinely them.
I’ve seen countless of times where people with several friends (or a lot) are left in the dust after two people in the friendships have a conflict or they are friends “only in the fun times”. This was also before the internet took off.
My mom somehow has this friend, I’d say like a BFF or something (same gender for context) while she was in school or something, and they seem so close. As a kid, I’ve been to their house a few times and I’d didn’t have a phone (smartphones werent even a thing) so I was just bored and looked around at stuff while the adults talked.
My mom borrowed money from this friend so she’d have enough money to buy a house. That debt has now been repaid.
Like idk… that seems so rare… ironically my mom tells me “blood relationships is important” or some bullshit, but then I point this out and she just be like… speechless, cuz our actual blood relatives (like aunts/uncles) didn’t even wanna help.
But yea “these days”, maybe… maybe its just society gotten more obsessed with money and we end up with a low-trust society.
It was much harder to make friends before the internet existed.
No, my internet friends are as real as the IRL friends I have.
I’d be dead by now.
No.
But it would still help.
(due to social media bubbling)
Well, better in what way? You can have loads of friends and still be lonely af. You can talk to some strangers at a bar and not have any real intimacy or heart-to-hearts. I don’t get it. For me, probably not. I’d probably be at some cafe or at some geeky library hiding away from people 'cause I don’t wan to deal with all that 24/7.
I wouldn’t think so. Because after school wraps up, sure I’ll have a few locals left but as far as expanding beyond them is concerned, I would be a hermit by now with incredible contempt for society.
I don’t know. It’s something I think about a lot, especially when I’m wasting too much time online. But it really isn’t that simple. I had lots of friends and saw them pretty regularly, but I moved countries to be with my partner and I’m very happy with that choice and our life together.
But I don’t speak the language here, I’m learning but slowly. So if I wasn’t in message groups, sharing memes and video chatting my friends back home I’d feel pretty lonely. And it would make the couple of trips home each year much more awkward. By keeping in touch so regularly it feels totally normal to spend the day with a friend, even if I haven’t seen them in 9 months because I know all the little things they’ve been up to or excited about.
On the other side, if I had none of that, maybe I would have worked harder at learning the language. Especially with the lack of distractions the internet provides (being able to watch tv in English instead of local stuff is probably the biggest hurdle to learning), but realistically we’re busy and live in the country, so if I had some intermediate language skills and was vastly more lonely I’d probably not have made any real friends. I’d just go to some more social events in the year and participate a bit akwardly and feel sad.
Where did you move to?
France. It’s great and i love being here, but I teach English so there’s a lot of having to speak English and not a lot of push to speak French. Things should quite down in six months and I hope to be able to focus more on French and start actually gaining confidence in talking.
France sounds wonderful to live in!
I wish I could speak French but mine is very beginner. And it’s not France French.
You’ll catch on quickly once you start, I’m sure. :)
Nope, I choose not to have friends because I have anxiety and don’t like people. Girlfriend and family is enough :)
