Question About Online Friendships

Online friendships are usually built first by reading texts from the messages you share with them. Consequently, a significant fraction of text interpretation and ability to extract mood and emotion through words are required from you or else nothing will really have a meaning!, so whatever you read those messages, you do always need to use something from your cultural, cognitive and even emotional baggage...


...can this mean that when we do like an "online person", or hate them a lot, does it mean that we are loving/hating something about ourselves and no one else?


Discuss

Probs, a lot of tone and meaning is lost in purely textual conversation so could well be down to your own interpretation. One of the more difficult things when dealing with people online is knowing how serious or jovial they're being, and the uncertainty can make it so that you just aren't interested in trying with people

One of the reasons I still check back here is because I have a lot of respect for a few people that I'd get in touch with.

Interesting perspective. I've often ended up proper liking people over text/internet and upon meeting them it's just seemed to disappear, so maybe this links with your point - I'm liking a concept of someone I've made up.

It could be based on a few things I guess, our own interpretation - but also that some people act differently online/over text than they would do in person.

However, no interpretation is needed on the people you can clearly see are bumholes through what they say, rather than how we interpret it.

Actually it's normal for you to be so. Because this is what we call confirmation bias. Even our real life friends are the same. Nothing to worry about it. As long as you don't make enemy with others who hold different opinion, that's good enough :)