Are Online Friends Real Friends?
Before I got hooked on Twitter, one of my best girlfriends got mad at me when I said that her on-line chat buddies were not “real friends”. She obviously found this offensive and dismissive of the relationships she had made online. Now that I have become very connected in Twitter’s writing community, I understand how she must have felt.
Over the past year of pandemic life, I have grown very fond of my Tweeps and chat with them every day. We know so much about each other, including generally what area we live in, our work and marital status, and whether or not we have families. In fact, people share way more personal information online than they ever would in person because they feel safely hidden behind the invisible wall of their device. People tell you when they are depressed or anxious, their gender or sexual orientation, their relationship woes and their physical health impairments in great detail. It is very liberating to be at such a distance and have a caring ear.
I feel like social media has been a lifeline for me during this pandemic. Most of us have expressed feeling housebound, lonely and scared at times. It has broken the isolation to hear that others are feeling the exact same way. People have shared their coping strategies as well, which has given us hope and lifted our spirits. There has been so much cross-border love between Canadian and American writers. When Trump was in power, many Americans said they wanted to flee to Canada. My Tweeps from around the world shared their own journeys with Covid.
When the pandemic is over, we all dream of getting together in a big conference hall for a writing community retreat where we could finally meet face-to-face. Is this realistic or possible? I believe it is, but it would take a small committed group to orchestrate. My girlfriend from the beginning of this post actually made it happen with a few of her Tweeps. They met and traveled together to another country as part of a foreign film group on Twitter and had a lovely time.
Do you have online friends? Do they seem as real as your friends at home? Please comment below.
