Is it possible to be really close to an online friend?
It's possible to THINK you are really close to an online friend...
nope. i've been there. you'll never really know that person know matter how much you think you do.
Yes. My 2 online friends are closer than any of my other friends. One of them I've talked to nearly every day for 5 years. I can tell her things I can't tell my own parents, even things I couldn't admit to myself. She can make me laugh for 12 hours straight. I can't count count the number of times I've stayed up until 6 in the morning because neither of us wanted the conversation to end. Wow this story has a lot of numbers in it, sorry.
But online friends can break your heart, too. My second friend disappeared after 4 years, and I have no way to reach her. We were soul mates in our life dreams and harships we'd been through. I think about her every day and have never wished so much for someone else's happiness.
>>16933573
>My second friend disappeared after 4 years
Well, I don't think she is a "real" friend
>>16933579
She was/is a real friend. Her life has been very difficult; she had a legitimate reason for disappearing. We changed each other's lives and are interconnected even if I never see her again. I'll never forget her.
>>16933595
I bet you had a crush on her
>>16933516
Nope and let me tell you why anon, you can THINK youre best friends with someone but you dont know shit about them. I met someone on an online game who lived in canada and we spoke online fairly often for two years. they invited me to come to a con and when i arrived they tottally blew me off and i spent most of the trip alone.
You can THINK that you really know them and youve spent x years talking but it doesnt mean shit. You dont know what theyre really like until you meet them and they have to interact with you more than jusr a text box that they can pick up and put down at will
Yep. Depends to a great extent how open you are with each other, how much of yourselves you allow the other person to see. Regardless however close you may become, proximity adds an element of further depth that simply cannot be substituted. Eventually meeting face to face, if you ever do, will confirm this in short order.
I actually wrote a study on this years ago.
the biggest problem with online friends, comes from the fact that brains don't play by rules that you create. they do what they always do.
when you sit and talk with someone face to face, a thousand messages are sent and received every minute, without counting any words you may have used during that time.
This non-verbal communication means more to the brain than the words do, so the brain fills in these blanks when you talk with someone online, and their real messages are not available. Your brain doesn't just make up random data to fill the blanks, it draws from your memories, your imagination... you.
in other words, talking to someone online is like talking to a mirror, with some hopes and dreams, and someone else's words mixed in occasionally. it's really easy to fall in love with yourself, and a lot of people thought they found true love on the internet. they quit their job and sold their house to go be with someone, and it was they worst mistake of their life.
you can't know someone online
>>16933779
Is it a fluke when my online friends are the same when I finally meet them in person? The ones I've met matched up. Granted I haven't met that many.
Through the power of wireless networks, it is possible your online friend can be sitting right next to you!
>>16933789
they didn't match up. your mind tricked you again
automatically replacing your memories with reality as that information came available.
If you met them for more than a couple days, things would start unraveling
not just online friends. we also did studies where we had "an elderly couple next door"
over the course of a year we swapped out the couple 6 times, all the while they were talking and interacting with the neighbors. none of the neighbors had a clue that the people were different. faces changed, changing people's memories with them. the brain only cares about some information the rest is just filler.
the old lady with the yellow sweater, was always seen as the same person, even though she changed 6 times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg
bump for interest
