How to Build Authentic Friendships in a Social Media World

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Social media has changed how we look at friendships. Most people long for close friends and connections in their lives, but the older you get, the harder it can be to create these. Various studies have highlighted the importance of friendships and the dangers of loneliness. The findings that life is better when shared are facts that most of us are already aware of. In this world of high social media usage, it’s easy to mistake a long list of friends on Facebook with real connections. Building authentic friendships takes work, but it is possible to move beyond superficiality and develop a strong circle.

Evaluate Your Social Media Habits

Social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram are great places to express yourself, connect with old friends, keep up with faraway connections, and meet new people. There are a lot of pros and cons of social media usage, and many people have experienced loneliness and depression as a result of social media. We are all different, and our experiences and intentions when using social media can differ significantly. To have a pleasant experience online, you must understand yourself and monitor your social media habits.

The essential factor you need to find clarity on is how much time you spend online. Do you connect with people and react to their posts on social media, or is most of your time spent silently browsing through people’s profiles? You can’t build the friendships you desire if you don’t interact, give, and share yourself. Have you ever chosen social media over interacting with friends and new people in real life? Being online is great, but friendships need real interactions to go to the next level.

The allure and intrigue of social media are to keep you entertained and stimulated. If you don’t take stock of your online habits and what emotions and impact they produce on you, you might not be creating the social media connections you think you are. When you go through tough times, you need real friends you can lean on.

Practice Intentionality on Social Media

There are different reasons to use social media. Keeping up with news, entertainment, building a business brand, making friends, and staying connected to family and friends are just some of them. Take some time to consider your main objectives for each social media site you have an account.

If your goal is to communicate with faraway connections, allot some time to do that. If it is to get fashion inspiration, then enjoy spending time doing that. It can also be helpful to evaluate how genuine or pure your intentions are. It’s possible to use social media as an escape from reality, to procrastinate, to compare yourself to others, or to brag about your life. To have authentic friendships, you can’t pretend to be someone you are not just to impress people.

Eliminate Aspects of Social Media That Do Not Benefit You

After you have evaluated why you use social media and how you use it, consider whether you are getting as much as you want from it. If you have accumulated hundreds of social media friends online, but you don’t know any of them on a deep level, you might need to rethink your strategy. If you experience negative emotions after spending time on Facebook, you might need to reduce your time there and reconsider who you want to connect with there.

A lot of people find that connecting with fewer people online helps them manage their experiences better. Managing your friends online is a necessary form of self-care. Not everyone deserves access to your life and your heart.

Focus on the Positive, Final Thoughts

You can make friends online or offline. If you want to know how to build authentic friendships in a social media world, it starts with being your authentic self both online and offline. You are going to connect with people who naturally resonate with you as you do with them. It could be a shared experience or interest, but be rest assured that you have something that the right friends are going to appreciate. Be positive and don’t be afraid to initiate when you see a potential friendship connection.

John S. - Editor in Chief
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