Struggles And Insecurities With Online Friends ||Hard But I Love It

Hello guys! Today, I thought I’d write a discussion post on online/blogging friends! Since I started book blogging a little over a year ago, I’ve made some incredible blog friends I love with all my heart! However, there are definitely some things I struggle with that just isn’t the same with “real life” or “in person” whatever you want to say friends! These struggles can make me a bit insecure, so I really wanted to share out and see if anyone else feels the same way as me!

Not Remembering Faces

For me, I tend to remember people’s faces more than their names. There are some people in my high school whose faces I know quite well, as I’ve had many classes with them, but I (shamefully) still don’t know their names! With blogging, many people (myself included) don’t put their face on the internet, using perhaps a picture of the back of their head, a vector drawing, or something instead of their actual face. And with the people who do upload their faces, it’s just that one picture of their face I have to associate with them, not seeing their physical body and their face with so many different emotions each day.

Hard To Remember They’re A Person!

Sometimes, it’s kind of weird to think that my internet friends are real people to? I love my internet friends so much, but I’ve never interacted with them in person, only writing messages online and sooner or later another message appears back to me. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that there’s an actual person being the screen, an actual person who is writing back at me!

Not Knowing Many Personal Details

Internet safety! There are a lot of things I don’t share online for obvious reasons, such as where I live and where I go to school. These things frequently pop up in conversation with my real life friends! I even haven’t shared my real name online–although it does begin with the letter K! As much as I love connecting with my internet friends, it does feel weird like we can’t have the closest relationship compared with my in person friends since there is a lot we don’t know about each other.

Messaging Effort

Listen, I’ll say it here, I really suck at texting people. It just seems like that time could be better spent saying better things? I often leave my in person friends on read, or forget or “forget” to reply to their messages, which can annoy them, but in the end I still see them at school five days a week and we talk in person then so we’re still close friends! With internet friends, my only means of communication is messaging, so when I don’t message people, I just don’t talk to them at all! And that’s no way to have a friendship!

Having So Many!

…for me, anyways. I have a fair amount of internet friends, some I know better than others. But in this case, counting the people I don’t really message, but I still try to comment regularly on their blogs, I have a ton! Compared to real life–I’m not a social person, at all. (and nobody is surprised lol). I have basically five friends who I’ll actually hang out with outside of school and I don’t instigate conversations with anyone else. I’m more comfortable having online bookish friends, but I definitely follow more than five blogs, and it can be hard to keep them straight!

So there are a lot of struggles I have with having online friends. But the thing is, at the end of the day, it’s so incredibly rewarding and I’m so, so, so grateful to have these friends! I love how I can chat with people about books, which I do really do with my in person friends. I love how people from such different backgrounds, different ages living in different countries with different jobs who would normally not really be acquainted or friends can connect with each other! It’s so so clear to me that the number one reason I continue blogging and I love book blogging is without a doubt for this amazing community and the amazing people I can connect with ❤ ❤ ❤

Let’s Chat

What are some things you struggle with having online friends? Can you relate to any of these? I’d love to chat in the comments below