Meeting Twitter Friends
This past weekend my friend and I took a three-hour road trip to Virginia to surprise my Twitter friend.
We had never met before and he did not know I was coming.
He was very surprised and it was a great trip! :)
But the whole time leading up to this, my mind kept coming back to, "What if I'm a disappointment? What if I don't look like what they expected? What if what if what if?"
These thoughts often surface when I am going to meet an internet friend in person for the first time.
There is a unique dynamic to online friendships that more tactile IRL friendships tend to lack.
While it's different, this doesn't make these friendships any less real, valuable, or genuine.
But having these unique friendships means that you may not meet this person for a very long time, (or ever!) depending on your level of closeness, or the physical distance between you both.
You might text, talk, snap, and face-time frequently, but it's no substitute for the real thing.
Knowing and seeing someone only through a screen means that I get nervous for when we meet.
Not because of safety, or doubt that this person is who they say they are, but because I am afraid I will ruin their expectations.
Because I am afraid that I will not live up to their image of me from social media.
Can I let you in on a secret?
I can actually be quite insecure.
We have full control over the way we present ourselves on social media.
Taking pictures in the right light, editing what doesn't look good to us, slapping a filter on something to make it look better... all that.
When it comes to Real Life, we have so much less control.
I can't hide behind a perfect angle and Selfie Attempt #46 when I am standing in front of you.
Many friends, connections, and acquaintances that I have bonded with online have never met or seen me in person.
I know that, if they're truly my friends, what I look like shouldn't matter.
Part of me still feels guilty though, like I am putting a polished version of myself out into the world.
And... I suppose I am.
But it feels different when it's not a classmate, family member, or IRL friend that has seen me many times in person.
We KNOW that Instagram isn't real, right?
I shouldn't feel guilty if anyone believes that I look 100% all of the time, from the bulk of what they've seen on social media.
And yet...
For those of you that have internet friends, have you ever felt this way meeting one in person?
Or, if you haven't had the chance to do so yet, have you thought about this at all?
(Oh, and I asked this friend from Twitter what his perceptions were after meeting me and he said: "...Your personality transferred so well from social media to real life. Like you're truly just being yourself." So what am I so worried for, huh?)
~Bye for now
We had never met before and he did not know I was coming.
He was very surprised and it was a great trip! :)
But the whole time leading up to this, my mind kept coming back to, "What if I'm a disappointment? What if I don't look like what they expected? What if what if what if?"
These thoughts often surface when I am going to meet an internet friend in person for the first time.
There is a unique dynamic to online friendships that more tactile IRL friendships tend to lack.
While it's different, this doesn't make these friendships any less real, valuable, or genuine.
But having these unique friendships means that you may not meet this person for a very long time, (or ever!) depending on your level of closeness, or the physical distance between you both.
You might text, talk, snap, and face-time frequently, but it's no substitute for the real thing.
Knowing and seeing someone only through a screen means that I get nervous for when we meet.
Not because of safety, or doubt that this person is who they say they are, but because I am afraid I will ruin their expectations.
Because I am afraid that I will not live up to their image of me from social media.
Can I let you in on a secret?
I can actually be quite insecure.
We have full control over the way we present ourselves on social media.
Taking pictures in the right light, editing what doesn't look good to us, slapping a filter on something to make it look better... all that.
When it comes to Real Life, we have so much less control.
I can't hide behind a perfect angle and Selfie Attempt #46 when I am standing in front of you.
Many friends, connections, and acquaintances that I have bonded with online have never met or seen me in person.
I know that, if they're truly my friends, what I look like shouldn't matter.
Part of me still feels guilty though, like I am putting a polished version of myself out into the world.
And... I suppose I am.
But it feels different when it's not a classmate, family member, or IRL friend that has seen me many times in person.
We KNOW that Instagram isn't real, right?
I shouldn't feel guilty if anyone believes that I look 100% all of the time, from the bulk of what they've seen on social media.
And yet...
For those of you that have internet friends, have you ever felt this way meeting one in person?
Or, if you haven't had the chance to do so yet, have you thought about this at all?
(Oh, and I asked this friend from Twitter what his perceptions were after meeting me and he said: "...Your personality transferred so well from social media to real life. Like you're truly just being yourself." So what am I so worried for, huh?)
~Bye for now
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