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Making friends on the internet

jon.bo

1–10 of 62 posts

Re: Making friends on the internet

#2
> it starts with twitter

No thanks. If this is the state of socialization in an era where online discourse is controlled by private interests with "agile" ethics, and people are too afraid to socialize in real life for a growing number of reasons, I'll deepen my mastery of hermitage.

Re: Making friends on the internet

#3
Hey Jon! We're friends (followers-of-one-another...?) on Twitter. Super cool to see a post from you here. Small world!

I'll take this as an opportunity to 'send that dm / email / offer to connect'. Going to send you a message on Twitter.

Re: Making friends on the internet

#5
post #2

> it starts with twitter No thanks. If this is the state of socialization in an era where online discourse is controlled by private interests with "agile" ethics, and people are too afraid to socialize in real life for a growing number of reasons, I'll deepen my mastery of hermitage.

I'm just as cynical.

> I’ve been on the internet since I was 14 (11 years ago).

The author is young. They weren't around to remember the early internet or life without it. Their childhood/adolescence is corporate controlled, algorithm driven websites like Youtube and Facebook. Their outlook as an "Internet native" has been shaped by the enforced behaviours of sites like Twitter.

Re: Making friends on the internet

#6
post #2

> it starts with twitter No thanks. If this is the state of socialization in an era where online discourse is controlled by private interests with "agile" ethics, and people are too afraid to socialize in real life for a growing number of reasons, I'll deepen my mastery of hermitage.

Yes, probably the saddest thing I read this week. Self-promotion on twatter and HN is different than forming friendship. The goold old days of fora was way better to make friends from the internet IMO. Nowadays everything seems to be a link aggregator which fundamentally change how people interact with each other.

Also it may be more an academic thing, but cold emailing is a good way to make contact. Not necessarily friends thought it can happen but at least it can make projects advance, with very little (public) noise.

Re: Making friends on the internet

#8
post #2

> it starts with twitter No thanks. If this is the state of socialization in an era where online discourse is controlled by private interests with "agile" ethics, and people are too afraid to socialize in real life for a growing number of reasons, I'll deepen my mastery of hermitage.

> attend offline events! Be adventerous Meeting in-person is harder but increases the intimacy and richness of communication. Combine an offline meetup with a walk through a park or a museum for maximum serendipity.

Clearly you missed this part of post.

Re: Making friends on the internet

#9
post #2

> it starts with twitter No thanks. If this is the state of socialization in an era where online discourse is controlled by private interests with "agile" ethics, and people are too afraid to socialize in real life for a growing number of reasons, I'll deepen my mastery of hermitage.

Yes, probably the saddest thing I read this week. Self-promotion on twatter and HN is different than forming friendship. The goold old days of fora was way better to make friends from the internet IMO. Nowadays everything seems to be a link aggregator which fundamentally change how people interact with each other. Also it may be more an academic thing, but cold emailing is a good way to make contact. Not necessarily…

> The goold old days

Okay. But those days are gone. So what do you expect OP and folks growing up today to do? Shy of time travel they cant live the childhood you did and experience the magical internet of the ~90's.

Maybe their version is just as good to them as yours was to you?

Re: Making friends on the internet

#10
post #7

Not sure what it's like now, but over a decade ago I made "online friends" on online games. Those were great times... Legend of Mir 2, Phantasy Star Online, Gunbound, even WoW!

I am still making friends online, so Imma write my experience too: In MWO, I saw someone with interesting username, that was sole reason to start chat with them, then later got invite to Discord server, And there I met more people, and made like 3 good friends,

In World of Warships... It was mostly: Find clan -> Join discord -> Chat -> Potentially find people you vibe well with -> Friends

So yeah... a bit of discord focus there.. But still, some friends I made, were over steam, via TF2 or Garry's mod, and considering those are still alive, definitely still possible,

Tbh I still have yet to try MMO

Twitter... Feels a bit different. I find someone I vibe with, we interact with each other, but usually... it tends to feel, at best, something that has to be yet a friendship, but not reaching friendship itself at all? Hard to tell.

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