It’s a Small World: Making Friends from the Internet

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A few weeks ago I was forwarded a message by my Canadian blog friend – a short Facebook post that had been shared in a group that I am not a member of, but she is. The post was from a blogger who lived in my local area (although I didn’t know her), putting out a request for a blogging companion to accompany her to an event that she was attending at the end of the month. I contacted her and we messaged back and forth over a few days. We found that have a few people and things in common, including the fact that her husband works at the same place as one of my friends. A few days later, we met up at the event and immediately got on really well – she was warm and friendly, easy to talk to, I instantly liked her and had a really enjoyable evening. So much so, in fact, that I thoroughly intend on meeting up with her again in the future for lunch or coffee. 

April will mark my SIX year blog anniversary, and even after all this time I still get a kick out of making new friends that I have found through my little space of the internet. Of course, I’m incredibly careful and always have a plan in place to ensure my personal safety when I am meeting someone, but as these connections have been made and grown over the years they have developed into meaningful friendships. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had very few bad experiences, often finding that the knowledge we already have of each other through our blog posts and conversations means that we can talk and ask questions without having to go through the ‘getting to know you’ process.

Lovely people at the 2016 Bash
Elena (Elena Peters) and I at the 2017 Bloggers Bash
Lovely people at the 2016 Bloggers Bash

We have met in person many times, introduced each other to our families, stayed at each other’s houses. I’ve been on a writers retreat with some of them, I meet up with some of them for lunch during the week, go on day trips to interesting places, support them with their personal projects, we exchange birthday and Christmas cards and gifts, and I see a whole bunch of them every year at the Annual Bloggers Bash. Some have become Social Media Management clients. Some of them even came to my wedding, one of whom was enormously pregnant at the time and travelled half way up the country to be there. It isn’t just bloggers from the UK – I’ve met up with friends from the US and Canada (my Canadian friend has stayed at my home), and have even had offers for The Bloke and I to go and stay with them in their own countries.

Donna (Jot to Jot) at Crystal Palace Park
The lovely Shelley (Motivate Me Now)
Meeting up with Tiffany (A Girl and Her Passport)

While there are countless arguments to be had for the negative impact that the internet and social media has had on is as a society, I have found that it has been instrumental in making the world a much smaller place, and I’m so grateful for the people that it has introduced me to! 

What about you guys? Have you met with other bloggers in person?

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59 thoughts on “It’s a Small World: Making Friends from the Internet”

  1. I agree Suzie, thanks for pointing out the positives of social media! I’ve met one Canadian couple who were passing through Las Vegas, last year. But have been following some people literally for years!

  3. I’ve met a few people I know from my blog and Twitter; they even sat in the lobby with autograph books!
    But something seems to get in the way every time a fellow blogger comes to Niagara Falls, Canada.

  6. Oh well, you know I’ve met a few of you the last few years!!
    The intention is to meet more often but life gets in the way. But these meetings have just consolidated a wonderful friendship started via the blog then social media.
    Some I’d say, know more about me than friends I’ve Known for years…

  7. Going through customs and telling the agent I had traveled over the ocean to stay with a friend I’d met through blogging, but had never actually met, met, before was definitely an experience I never would have expected I’d ever have, but totally worth it!

  8. This is so interesting. I have one real life blogging friend that I am aware of. Besides that, I almost met Katie Pitts and that is It! A few of us in Ireland have threatened to meet up and the will is there. I keep entertaining notions I will get to the bash too. It would blow my mind to face to face with so many other blogs that I read so much.

  9. It’s true that the blogging community has been a terrific way to make virtual friends from a round the world…I am planning to attend the Bloggers Bash this June and hope to meet some in person!

  10. Before I enjoyed reading your post, I read another enjoyable piece this morning: “I Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell” by Kashmir Hill

    Be warned, it is a long post. Maybe a half hour read. Wow, imagine that — I’ve come to the point where a half hour of reading one item feels too long and I start to squirm and worry I won’t get to all the other stuff recommended this morning that looks interesting to read or watch. Do you think that is evidence of daily information overload?

    https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-the-big-five-tech-giants-from-my-life-it-was-hel-1831304194

    The reason I mention Hill’s post is that for the first time ever I heard about Dunbar’s number. “Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships. Dunbar explained it informally as “the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar”.

    Have you reached Dunbar’s number yet? I know I haven’t. In fact, I’m so far away from that comfortable limit of stable relationships I’m probably almost a hermit. At least, I think I am. :o)

  12. I have never actually met another blogger, but some feel like such close friends that I find myself thinking of them often, such as you and the Bloke each time I see a squirrel climb into our bird feeder… Great post!

  15. I read your post and I came to realise that there are much more kind and good people on the internet that I first through. I did not had the chance to meet anyone in person yet but hopefully in the future I will. I am glad that you had good experience and made new friends and that you shared those experiences with us! I hope one day I will have the opportunity to meet new and great people.

  16. I think I know that Canadian blogging friend….my husband and I let her stay in our vacation condo while she and I both attended a blogging conference. It was in Orlando where we then both met up with another blogging friend. In Connecticut, I lived in the same town as another blogger and we’d meet up at a local coffee shop to talk blog. And now that I live in Orlando, I already know one blogger down here, but I’m sure the town of millions is filled with a few others!

  19. Blogging is awesome, especially for meeting people. So far I have met three Americans, and met my wife through another blogger who I haven’t met, despite the fact we reside about 25km away from each other in the Philippines.

    What starts off as a blog and having regular readers soon becomes a community of friends with meetings, emails and the like. It’s made my life so much more rewarding than it probably would have been. Congrats on the upcoming six year anniversary too.

  20. I’ve only met other bloggers at the bash a few years back. I hoping to go this year, but I agree despite the negatives we have to try and make the social web work positively.

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