How To Make Friends Online

How to make friends online!

In today’s world, we are blessed (and maybe cursed) with the invention that is the Internet. While it has many uses, there is no denying that it has fostered many online relationships and friendships. Now the question is, can you do the same?

I’m here to tell you yes, it’s definitely possible! I myself have made many friends from online interactions over the years I’ve used the Internet. There are some really awesome people you can meet. But of course, there are some things you should definitely know when it comes to online friends. And that’s what I’m here to talk about today.

In this post, I’ll go over 5 things you should when it comes to how to make friends online. I’ll be talking about how to find friends through the Internet and how to be safe and comfortable doing so. With online interactions, you can make some truly great friends.

Without further ado let’s get started!

1. Ask yourself why you want to make online friends first.

When it comes to making friends online, the best place to start is by asking yourself why you want to have them in the first place? After all, you don’t want to be making friends just for the sake of it; you need to have a reason. I’m not sure if making friends just for them to be your emotional baggage pillow is a good reason to. That’s a quick way to lose a bunch of friends!

For me personally, making friends online was the result of something else I did; it was rarely the main thing I was looking for. With the things I was already doing online, that’s how I made friends. It’s a great way to go about it because you don’t come off as desperate and it comes naturally.

2. Look for friends in things you already do.

This leads me into my next point. If you couldn’t tell, the best way to meet online friends is by going through the things you already do.

Me playing video games for example, I made a ton of online friends because we enjoyed playing the same together. And a few of them I even added to my Facebook and Messenger because we got along so well and enjoyed having conversations together.

If you like to use social media like Facebook or Reddit, then those are also great channels to meet new online friends. If you participate in topics or groups, more than likely you’ll find some people you really connect with and have good conversations with. That’s certainly how I met people online.

You can also search for communities that are related to the hobbies that you’re into. There are probably people who are into the same things as you are, whether it’s hiking or trading card games. This is another great way to meet new online friends.

3. Grow and nurture your offline friendships.

Much like your offline friends, you should nurture and grow your relationships with your online friends. Now I’m not saying to spam and harass them all the time; you’ll lose them quickly if you do that. But you can slowly start interacting with them more and share more of what you’re about.

For example, one friend I met online, we met through social media. But slowly, we started sharing photos of random stuff and then eventually some of the things that were happening in our daily life. By doing this, we bonded closer as friends and made it easy to talk to each other.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is, let your friendships online grow naturally!

4. Enforce your boundaries.

While it’s great that you can meet a lot of new friends online, it’s also imperative for you to enforce your boundaries. At least in my experience, there can be some really nasty people online that can say some of the most awful things to you. The simple reason why is because they can hide behind a computer screen to do this.

So don’t let anyone talk disrespectful to you like that. If you’re finding someone is talking rudely to you, then you can quickly move on from them.

For example, there was one person who became my friend online and at first I thought he was cool. But over time, he started to become really annoying and would say negative stuff to me all the time. At first I tried to tell him to stop doing so, but he didn’t listen. So I had to ignore them and cut them out of my online interactions because of this. I usually give a person a chance to redeem themselves first; after all, how can someone correct their mistake if they don’t know about it? But if they don’t want to change or respect your boundary, then you have the right to remove yourself from that friendship.

5. Protect yourself and be safe.

You wouldn’t tell someone you just met your credit card number and where you live, right? You must also apply your due diligence online as well. You should always be cautious when making new friends online. You don’t know who is behind the person you are talking to. So never give out your personal information so easily to someone. Be sure to exercise caution when interacting online, especially when attempting to meet new people.

Summary

To summarize, here are the 5 things you should know on how to make friends online:

1. Ask yourself why you want to make online friends first.
2. Look for friends in things you already do.
3. Grow and nurture your offline friendships.
4. Enforce your boundaries.
5. Protect yourself and be safe.

And there you have it; 5 things on how to make friends online! I hope you found this post helpful.

Now get out there and make some friends on the Internet. 🙂

What do you think of this post? Have you made any friends online before? I would like to know! Share them in the comments below.