One of the top things that people say about blogging – or being on social media in general – is that it’s a great way to make new friends and meet new people. Look at almost any “Reasons I Love Blogging” post and I guarantee at least one of the points mentioned will be surrounding online friendships or acquaintances they’ve made along the way. If I wrote that post right now, I know that would certainly be one of my top reasons why I love doing what I do. Then there’s the argument of “Are Online Friendships Real?” which I don’t really have to answer because it’s pretty obvious that they are. At least in my experience anyway. 

Thank you to Tisetas & Co for sponsoring this post!

As someone with very few real life friends, the relationships I’ve made with people online are incredibly important to me. I’ve lost friends in a number of different ways over the last few years; some my fault, the majority of them not but during that time, I also started my blog and started using social media so very gradually, one cancelled out the other and whilst all my real life friends and acquaintances were going off living their lives, a whole bunch of new online friends made their way into mine.

Not having many friends in your 20’s is difficult and it’s certainly not a position I thought I would find myself in when I was growing up and in my teens, surrounded by friends every single day. Charlene McElhinney wrote an amazing post about this in September, which pretty much sums up my thoughts perfectly and I’d definitely recommend giving that a read. She’s also one of the people that has prompted this post – which I’ll get onto in a bit!

The pros of being social and making friends online

I’ll always advocate for online friendships and I’d never question are online friendships real. I mean sure, you’re going to get a few wrong-uns along the way. It’s the internet, there’s hundreds of thousands of people to meet and they’re not all going to be nice or kind or your cup of tea. But that’s true for real life too – think of all the friends and acquaintances you’ve had in your life, I’m sure you didn’t see eye-to-eye with every single one of them.

Creative ways of staying in touch

Just because you met online doesn’t always mean you have to interact online and this gives you a great chance to switch up how you interact with people, which brings me on to today’s sponsor and products! I’ve recently started writing to the Charlene as we’ve decided to be pen pals an write… with actual paper and an actual pen! The lovely Felicidad at Tisetas & Co* has provided me with some of her postcards to feature in this post which are going to get used in future correspondence with Charlene and maybe a few other bloggers.

Her designs are really cute, bright and quirky and certainly a little different. I love the quotes she features on them and I was instantly drawn to the Neverending Story design, which has been one of my favourite films since I was a kid. It’s utterly magical and moving and just a lovely story (if you’ve seen Neverending Story, please leave me a comment and let me know!) She also designs badges, buttons and tote bags among other cool gifts!

You learn how to deal with long distance relationships

Obviously this doesn’t compare to being in a romantic relationship long distance because you never knew your online friends in real life in the first place but I do feel that having multiple online friendships, probably with people in different parts of the country (or the world) to you, it does give you a bit of experience and help in dealing with not always being with the people in your life that you care about. You find new ways to communicate (like above) but also new ways of being friends with people, that you wouldn’t get with people who live around the corner. Your priorities change and therefore paves the way for a whole different type of friendship.

You meet people from all walks of life

An amazing thing about being online and meeting people through blogging is you meet so… many… extraordinary… people! You will come across so many incredibly people from all different walks of life to you with so many lessons to teach you and perspectives to see through. Granted you might not actually become friends with everyone but it certainly benefit you to open your mind to different things that all these people can give you!

But it’s easier to find people with common interests

And although it’s great to learn new things that you’d never even considered before, the beautiful thing about being social online is that it’s so much easier to find a group of people with similar interests to you than it is in real life, especially as an adult. Unless you go to a Yoga class where you know everyone there is going to be interested in Yoga for example. But online, it’s just one big Yoga class! All you have to do is Tweet about something and you’ll get responses from people saying they also like that thing.

There’s always someone to talk to and to offer support

Talking about personal things isn’t always easy with people you know in real life and for some reason, I’ve always found opening up to my online friends a lot easier. Even if they’re friends I’ve managed to meet before, sharing my problems with them is always easier. There’s also the case of there potentially being more people you speak to online so you’ve got more of a chance of finding someone to talk to if you have a problem. For example, in my real life, there’s my Mum, Dad and boyfriend and that’s more or less it. If I have something going on that I don’t want to talk to any of those about then I’m more or less doomed. Or I would be, without my online pals! Online friends can provide an incredible support network and definitely help you feel less alone.

If you’re a blogger, how have you found meeting people online? Have you made any amazing online friends who have turned into real life friends? What are your pros of being social online? Let me know!

* This is a sponsored post and products featured were sent to me in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.