My Online Friends Feel Like Family… But Is That Enough?

Technology has given us many interesting things, and one of them is the opportunity to make friends with people we may never have met physically.

Personally, I have friends online that I have never met in person, yet we are close, just like blood sisters, supporting each other, checking up on each other, sharing our dreams and visions together, laughing together, and sharing our burdens together as well. It's simply amazing.

It's also amazing how I wake up in the morning sometimes to see text from friends in another country asking how I slept. That's how close I get with some of my online friends, and for sure, we do a lot in common just through the Internet.

Introverts will surely feel comfortable with online friends because they can sit in their comfort zone or, better still, let's call it a hiding zone , lol, and still talk with people. It's just so convenient for them to take time and gather their thoughts before expressing themselves.

However, it's important we don't ignore some sides of this issue. It's sad to see that some people end a physical relationship over little argument with boldness only to rely on the online family they have built over the years. Indeed, life is a choice, but some things are better put into consideration before taking actions.

Are you aware that online friendship can sometimes create the illusion that we know someone more than we actually do? People can have two sides of lifestyle, where their online character is different from their physical. They might choose to only showcase the side of their life they want us to see and hide the bad side. More of purchasing an item online due to its beauty without having access to the texture of that item to ascertain the quality overall.

Someone can be very caring online and still be completely different in real life. People can hide their intentions, create personalities that don't really exist, and tell us only the part of their lives they want us to see, and when we don't see their normal daily behavior physically, we might end up trusting them blindly, and it's a concern, especially when we use close online relationships to abandon our physical relationships.

I don't want to imagine having hundreds of online friends but struggling to have a meaningful conversation with my neighbor; it's an error in my personality... I think it's not too healthy. Without beating about the bush, online friendships are beautiful when they complement our physical relationships rather than completely replace them; the two combo is heavenly.

It's lovely to have a physical relationship, someone to sit with, pray together, hold hands, smile, share good, and all that. Physical presence is many things and shouldn't be outdated no matter how technology is taking over our world today.

Overall, I love both online and physical friendship as long as we can maintain a healthy connection with both.

This post is in response to the Hive Learners weekly prompt on the topic titled ONLINE FRIENDS.

The image was created using ChatGPT.