Nope
No, the people around me are mostly racists, sexists, and bigots. If it wasn’t for the internet, I wouldn’t be able to find my people without moving far away.
Midwest/deep south eh?
No, my internet friends are as real as the IRL friends I have.
Well, better in what way? You can have loads of friends and still be lonely af. You can talk to some strangers at a bar and not have any real intimacy or heart-to-hearts. I don’t get it. For me, probably not. I’d probably be at some cafe or at some geeky library hiding away from people 'cause I don’t wan to deal with all that 24/7.
What little tolorence I have for social interactions is 100% due to the internet. If I can’t hit the power button to make y’all go away I want nothing to do with you.
No.
I’m old enough to have not had a ton of friends before the internet.
Same. Although, I was in school back then, which kind of forces you to talk to people. The best way to make friends is to regularly see people. It is still hard, for me it is still a pretty rigged game of who I “click” with, but without you will never find out.
Actually, I was just thinking I should get off the internet more often.
I have lots of acquaintances and people with whom I’m friendly but few real friends… And I think that’s fine. I’ve never felt the need to spend tons of time around others or have tons of friends.
The getting off the internet thing is good. Usergroups and meetups can be a great place if you need socialization.
It wouldn’t change for me. I don’t even have friends on the internet.
I wouldn’t think so. Because after school wraps up, sure I’ll have a few locals left but as far as expanding beyond them is concerned, I would be a hermit by now with incredible contempt for society.
No, not really. Personally, think that friendships are very shallow these days. Only a handful of people or even less can be truly called friends that would be there for you when you genuinely them.
I’ve seen countless of times where people with several friends (or a lot) are left in the dust after two people in the friendships have a conflict or they are friends “only in the fun times”. This was also before the internet took off.
My mom somehow has this friend, I’d say like a BFF or something (same gender for context) while she was in school or something, and they seem so close. As a kid, I’ve been to their house a few times and I’d didn’t have a phone (smartphones werent even a thing) so I was just bored and looked around at stuff while the adults talked.
My mom borrowed money from this friend so she’d have enough money to buy a house. That debt has now been repaid.
Like idk… that seems so rare… ironically my mom tells me “blood relationships is important” or some bullshit, but then I point this out and she just be like… speechless, cuz our actual blood relatives (like aunts/uncles) didn’t even wanna help.
But yea “these days”, maybe… maybe its just society gotten more obsessed with money and we end up with a low-trust society.
I have a social life because of the internet. That’s where most of my friends are, too.
The internet is the sole source of my social life. I would have no friends at all if it didn’t exist.
Pretty sure that would make things worse.
Oh heavens, I don’t even want to think about me without the net!
I was a nerdy introvert raised in a moderately abusive house, in a small town with hardly any other kids. I had zero social skills.
Got internet at 16, and now I could talk to anybody with no real barrier to entry. I spent a lot of years being oblivious and a borderline incel before learning to get my act together, but I can only imagine I’d be much more socially awkward and probably still be a jerk and much more conservative if I hadn’t been able to talk to so many other people and especially with people of the opposite sex.
I still keep a small friend group, but I like to think it’s more by choice now 😅
I would probably have more “friends” but mostly because I’d probably still be resigned to putting up with a lot of toxic people.
The internet, while antithetical to mental health for the most part, did bring the destigmatization of self-care/boundaries and basic mental health.
