Having friends who live worlds apart from you is often difficult especially on days when you just need a hug, but fear not! There are ways to become close with your friends online. Here are three ways I have gotten closer to my online friends.
1. Check Up On Them Often
You don't know how they're doing all the time unless you ask and it means a lot to them that you do ask. It means that you care about their emotions and what's going on in their life. If they struggle with mental health issues make sure they're doing okay in that area and if they're not remind them that they matter to you. That also goes for physical health problems. Checking up on your friend(s) can be as simple as "How are you doing?" to a more detailed question such as how their performance went for example. It's easy to forget to check up on your online friends because they're not with you all the time but it definitely helps me become closer to my friends online.
2. Support Their Work
If your online friend is an artist, writer, blogger, actor, photographer, etc. make sure you are liking, commenting on, and promoting their work! Supporting someone's craft is a form of networking and because you are already friends with this person your friendship should build even stronger. It's not hard to support someone's work especially when the main thing you can do is to share it so that small gesture will mean a ton to your friend because they saw that you understood that it was important to them to gain an audience and recognition.
3. Respond!
I know it's not always easy to respond right away and that isn't what I mean. What I mean is to not ignore their last message and keep the conversation going if you can over however much time feels natural. It's easy to jump from topic to topic and ignore some messages but when you do that your friend will feel like you're ignoring them and that you don't care. Make sure to finish a conversation and then make whatever exclamation you want. Respond so your friend knows you're still there and want to talk. Respond so you don't appear rude or inconsiderate. Respond!
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