In my earlier days of internet use, I actually made some online friends that I later met in person (and still kinda-sorta-ish keep in contact with ~20 years later).
But I haven’t met anyone online that I have any in person contact with in a long long time. Although I haven’t really made any friends online in ages either, most of my communication with strangers seems to be one off messages like these HN comments that have no real hope of ever developing into anything else. I guess friendships develop in chat rooms rather than comment boards, which is how I became friends with the people I did become friends with.
It’s definitely a lot harder the older I get and it’s quite frustrating. People are busier, I’m busier, makes it hard. Even just going out, the majority of people are a lot younger than me, which is fine for hanging out (I hung out with people my age when I was the same age as the people I see now), but I find it extremely difficult to build a deeper connection or relationship with them, I guess I feel like the creepy older guy sometimes so I stay distant. Double so for dating. It doesn’t help that I have anxiety, I suppose. My core friend group are great and we do hang out, but yeah, they’re busy, most have kids too, which makes it very hard to just casually meet up.
But I haven’t met anyone online that I have any in person contact with in a long long time. Although I haven’t really made any friends online in ages either, most of my communication with strangers seems to be one off messages like these HN comments that have no real hope of ever developing into anything else. I guess friendships develop in chat rooms rather than comment boards, which is how I became friends with the people I did become friends with.
It’s definitely a lot harder the older I get and it’s quite frustrating. People are busier, I’m busier, makes it hard. Even just going out, the majority of people are a lot younger than me, which is fine for hanging out (I hung out with people my age when I was the same age as the people I see now), but I find it extremely difficult to build a deeper connection or relationship with them, I guess I feel like the creepy older guy sometimes so I stay distant. Double so for dating. It doesn’t help that I have anxiety, I suppose. My core friend group are great and we do hang out, but yeah, they’re busy, most have kids too, which makes it very hard to just casually meet up.