You are scrolling through social media and a new notification pops in. A new friend request. You check their profile picture and immediately clicked on accept. With time, you start bonding with the person, messages turn to calls and calls into video calls. And that’s just when you have earned a friend for life.
However, no matter how strong a relationship is, distance can make things worse. More so, if it’s just an online friendship. And who would want to lose a friend who is like an asset for us, even if it’s an online one.
But no matter how beautiful the concept of online friendships sound to you, the con here is maintaining the bond. Growing closer to someone and maintaining that bond are two different things. And not everyone can pull that off. Lack of communication, no physical meetings and chats restricted to message can all mess things up in your recently brewing friendship.
So, if you, too, are worried about to how to avoid it, here are some ways to successfully maintain online friendships:
Don’t change yourselves
It’s very common during long-distance friendships that with the distance, personalities too change. It can be intentional or unintentional, but even a slight change in behavior can make things worse for you and can create a sense of awkwardness. Thus, it is important to be honest about yourself and stay the same. If you are going through a situation that is affecting your behavior, tell your friend about it so that there aren’t any misunderstandings.
Fix a schedule
The most common problem in online friendships is making time for each other. At the time when your friend from the other side of the screen is free, you might be occupied with tons of work and vice versa. So, it’s imperative that you make a schedule on certain days that will be fixed as your day of just hanging out together or would be dedicated for your hour-long video calls.
Create a playlist for each other
There is no one else in this world who knows your music tastes better than your own best friend. So, taking advantage of that try to make a playlist for each other, this way it would remind them of you and vice versa.
Change your habits and any assumptions about reaching out
Often, people fear in reaching out to their friend assuming it might look out of context or that they will end up bothering the other person. But it is good to get comfortable and start conversations out of context. It’s important to trust your friend and trust that they want to talk to you and that they miss you as much as you miss them.
Plan meet ups
Like any relationship, online friendships also requires the sudden spurts of excitement which can come in when you decide how the next meet up will be, what type of places need to be visited and a bucket list can also be made that will add to the excitement. This will also help you plan unique stayovers so that there is no missing each other from a distance.