No.
It wouldn’t change for me. I don’t even have friends on the internet.
I have a social life because of the internet. That’s where most of my friends are, too.
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.
Pretty sure that would make things worse.
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I would invent the internet immediately in order to have more friends.
I mean the modern web is mostly made by college nerds and maintained by underpaid underappreciated
obsessiveopen-source developers.
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 😅
Maybe, I dunno, I’ve always been terrible with keeping in contact with people so likely not. I was hanging out with people constantly when I was in school but that was easy because school put me in constant social contact with those people.
I’m in the same boat, I love talking with my friends, but I always forget that I have that option. Once you leave my circle of proximity, you might as well be dead.
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.
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.
It was much harder to make friends before the internet existed.
Serious answer:
If the internet didn’t exist, I’d be peer pressured into following whatever norms are followed by all the people in my physical surrounding. I’d take my cues from what my parents and family and classmates told me were “right” and I wouldn’t question outside it.
I’d probably spend more time “socializing”, which as an introvert would exhaust me. But I wouldn’t know any different, so it would just be The Way It Is.
But you asked if my social life would be “better”, and better is hard to define. Better for… general community compliance? Probably. Better for my general mental health? Probably not.
I like spending 15 minutes catching up on my Lenny communities and reading what you degenerate fucks are up to. I am less excited about “going out with friends” every night and “doing something”.
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.
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?
