Friendships, in person & online

Friendships

As an introvert, making friends is a new thing for me. I used to always have just 1 friend and some acquaintances. That friend would be the world to be and I'd try to do everything social with only that one friend. When I finally escaped high school with my diploma, I went to college and met a whole new world of people. I finally started making different friends, I eventually got A BOYFRIEND!! (Crazy right?) So when I finally graduated with my degree and my job, I had a few circles of friends and my boyfriend.
This was all new to me, I liked talking to everyone, I would open up telling anybody anything because ohmygosh they like me and like talking to me.

Today, after a few years of experiencing friends and social activities, including having to talk and listen, I've realized over the years that you can't just BE social, you have to LEARN to be social. It's hard work to be social and keep people liking you. After a few trial and error friends, some peaked, some burned down, some never happened. I know what friends I like, who deserves my friendship and who just plain annoy me. I never knew that I could actually not like talking to certain people, I thought it was all the same.

Actually that's not even what I wanted to talk about, what I meant to talk about is the difference between in-person friendships and online. There's some friends I LOVE to talk online too, no boundaries, they can't see me, I can say anything. But as soon as I meet up with them, it's like suddenly I'm an open book. Which is a bit crazy because online they can keep valid proof of what I've said.

STORY TIME

In grade 10, people I hardly knew got this guy from another school to add me to MSN and chat me up, get to know me and get my secrets. This guy would then send our conversations to those people and after a major school dance where I spilled the beans about everyone I didn't like and my crush, they modified some of the stuff I said and printed it. They brought it to school and showed a lot of people (these people were popular so they showed A LOT of people).
Needless to say, I'm now worried about spilling secrets online and learned my lesson... sort of.

/ END STORY TIME

And then there's people you get along with in-person, you know the people, the ones that you make eye contact with and you just know that you're compatible, you open your mouths and discover just how compatible. There's some people, it's CRAZY how along you get and everything just makes sense. Then there's the rest of them, the people you get along with just enough and the people who make you wonder and re-question your life and social skills.

Now some of these people, I adore them in-person, I'm in my game, we chat, we socialize, it's perfect; especially in a group of three. Three, by the way, is the perfect group to be when socializing, I completely believe in group of three and enjoy the hell out of it. Anyway, when we part and later meet up again, except ONLINE this time, it's like they've turned into one of those others... the conversation shrivels up and dies when you get past "how are you?" it's sad, it's lame, it's depressing. It completely ruins my social game and I'm unwell until I see them in person again.

Anyway so if I can conclude this mess, I just wanted to vent about great in-person friendships that completely SUCK in online chat or texting. Why is online so different from in-person? Does the person not like me anymore? Makes no sense.