Comments on: Building Positive Friendships: Modern Tools & Old-Fashioned Self-Understanding

By: Julie M

Julie M — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:51:17 +0000

This is a great article. I have thought about this a lot lately. I have found that the people I have met online are sometimes more supportive than my friends/family in real life. This scares me. I do not want to lose sight of having real contact. I often wonder how to build the relationships in real life like the ’supporter’ or ‘followers’ that I have online.

I just wrote a post on my blog about this and am curious how other writer’s feel about who supports them the most.

Love this blog BTW!!

p.s. my mom’s name is Ruth.

By: Ryan Rekishi | Acorn-Seeds

Ryan Rekishi | Acorn-Seeds — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:44:59 +0000

Hi Ruth,

I agree with Vincent, I’m very grateful for many friendships I’ve made with people I completely resonate with. Most of them down south or overseas.

I always allow my intuition to guide me towards meeting the right people online and off!

~Ryan

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:54:24 +0000

Great article Ruth!

Friendship is a topic that has been on my mind the past year or so. Moving from a Australia to Canada has meant two things for me: 1) communication with old friends is now almost solely online; and 2) I have had to form new “in the flesh” friends. In regards to the former, I’m very appreciate of the tools of modern technology (email, facebook, etc). In regards to the latter, it hasn’t been that easy to be honest, mainly because I’m fairly introverted and don’t have a lot of free time. But I’m working on it

Lastly, in regards to the question “are internet ‘real’ friends?” I think you’ve nailed the answer. I think in the past there was a certain stigma associated with having friends online that you had never met in the flesh. These days everyone is online, and imo only the closed minded would try to argue that internet friends can’t be ‘real’ friends.

By: Evelyn Lim

Evelyn Lim — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:35:59 +0000

“There are no strangers in this world; just friends we have not met”.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:53:10 +0000

Hi Ruth .. that’s a good post – I like the way I’ve connected with people .. whom I’d describe as friends .. who offer me support at a difficult time, come back and see how I’m doing .. as they’re online .. & they’re probably more in touch with me than my ‘old’ friends .. & perhaps have experienced similar challenges to my own: & so understand.

It is common sense and finding like minded people .. as we communicate on line – we can get a ‘feel’ of the contact .. we can befriend a number, but almost certainly will only relate to ‘a few’ who actually become proper friends over the years, we’ll know the others over the years as we’ll be following them & keeping in touch but probably not as friends.

Good post .. Thanks – Hilary: Be Positive Be Happy

By: Vincent

Vincent — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:20:44 +0000

Hi Ruth,

The internet makes it easier for us to know more people and maybe more friends but the people online only become our friends when we make regular contact and feel good about them. I am also really grateful as the internet has helped me to meet people that is located at halfway around the world.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger