General Discussion

[quote name="Vardia" date="2022-07-17 15:43:27" ] Both seem to be equally difficult for me lol [/quote] agreed lmao. there are social intricacies for online just like real life and the worst part is they're different rules. i haven't made a real life friend in like 5 years. i'm not upset about it at all, i like a small circle. my online friend group basically all appeared at once last year-ish, sometimes people drift in and then out but it's generally the same group of people unchanging.

I struggle with both, but even the extroverted people in my life have trouble making lasting friendships. It just seems like those types of friends are few and far between after leaving school. Adults, even those in the same hobbies are so busy, it seems nobody has the mental energy to maintain a close friendship.

granted both are pretty difficult but online is definitely easier at least! over text, its much easier to fake it till you make it, or put on some sort of persona that makes you seem more outgoing than you might feel :T ofc while this makes it easier to make friends, finding close friends still takes as much effort as it would in person, and you really gotta put in effort :o

For me it is hard both ways. Online, I just don´t now if there is a scary creep on the other end and irl... Well it only gets harder to make friends, the older I get, at least that is my feeling.

I struggle to maintain friendships online, so I definitely prefer irl. It's also easier for me to start friendships irl? If we're in the same social setting than we probably already have something in common to talk about.

making friends irl is SIGNIFICANTLY harder for me. online, i have an easier time getting my tone across and stuff. you can take a few minutes to answer a question or respond and its still considered normal, whereas irl you have to respond pretty much immediately and dont have nearly as much time to think of what you will say and how you will say it. so online, i dont end up scaring away as many potential friends by my bad conversation habits lol

For me, I feel like it’s easier to make acquaintances in real life but easier to make actual friends online.

I didn't really have friends growing up--being a neurodivergent queer kid in a small town in the American south, I didn't exactly fit in. The internet has made it way easier to find like-minded people to connect with, especially as I've gotten older and more confident. I have speech issues to this day because of the aforementioned neurodivergence, and I'm still a queer person in a small southern town, so socializing outside the internet is still... challenging.

making friends irl is so difficult for me, and it has been for a long time. i have a really hard time striking up a conversation and i don't get out much. i don't have many peers at my job. online, i just find it so much easier to connect with people over shared interests and stuff. i get overwhelmed joining large or very active discords (hence why i'm not part of any FR ones) but i vastly prefer typing to talking. if i text a friend, there's less stress involved for both of us, i think. there's no pressure to respond immediately. we can take time to collect our thoughts or whatever and i am so thankful for that

i also have friends around the world that i never would have had the opportunity to talk to offline! i love the internet and i love digital communication