The digital age has aggressively crashed into our lives, but the days of regrettably lost friendships still linger. Why? Though online life has made it incredibly easy to reconnect with lost friends, it can remain difficult to keep a long-distance friendship alight. Now contact is more of a “… if they wanted to, they would” situation, exposing friends to potential judgement.
Social media has enabled us to come on leaps and bounds, helping us stay in touch with those scattered across the globe and stumble upon life-long friends. Despite this, it seems we are dangerously sinking into a deep abyss of misconstrued DMs and overthinking punctuation.
Our methods of communication have changed fundamentally with the advent of social media. I have happy memories of buying atrocious postcards for my friends whilst on holiday, scrawling down all of the adventures my 9-year-old self had undertaken over the 2 weeks away. Despite resurfacing chewed up and rain splattered weeks later, at that age they were evidence of a strong and endless friendship. Now we share hundreds of idyllic pictures of summer stop-offs in the blink of an eye without depending on the unreliability of the Royal Mail. Easier? Yes. Better? Unconvinced.
Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but when separated from a close friend, it’s hard to show real appreciation through messages.
I miss the physicality of the friendships we used to have. Sending a thank you letter for the thoughtful birthday gift instead of shooting a quick message. Knocking on a friend’s door instead of waiting hours for a text to be read. Physical acts, like receiving flowers or even a short letter, just make friendship seem so much more special to me. Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but when separated from a close friend, it’s hard to show real appreciation through messages. Easily lost amongst quicker and more convenient methods, it is your own responsibility to sustain your love language if, like me, you prefer using physical ways of showing appreciation for a friend.
The unnecessary damage experienced by friendships due to social media can be destructive. Connections deteriorate so easily from not replying to a message quickly enough or overanalysing its tone. While you spiralled for hours because your bestie ‘ghosted’ you, they were simply in the queue at Carphone Warehouse after dropping their phone whilst replying. Now we have social media entwined within our lives, the thought of abandonment is even more distressing, instant and acute. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Shooting a quick hpy bday x to your soulmate doesn’t always cut it.
Don’t let what you thought was an angry message fester and split you apart. Pick up the phone and talk it out. Or maybe send that super gorgeous birthday card you saw this morning. Shooting a quick hpy bday x to your soulmate doesn’t always cut it.
It can be easy to forget the importance of friendship as we all battle with social media, but I feel that a little step back in time can work wonders when you feel you’ve hit the rocks.
