Friday Question #102
Do you have blogger friends who have turned into “in-real life” friends? If yes, do you consider these friendships any different than those that developed more conventionally? What do you tell people when they ask how you developed the friendship? If no, what are you waiting for have you ever thought about what it would be like to meet a fellow blogger in real life?
As I mentioned on Monday, most of our Chicago friends are bloggers! So, yes – they have turned into “in real life” friends!
And I don’t consider them any different than friends we have met more conventionally. In fact, I dare say that bloggers are easier to keep in touch with – they’re more likely to respond to email, and of course, you communicate through your blogs.
I’m not saying it’s a replacement for meeting friends more conventionally (maybe this is a conventional method, who knows), but that for me, it turns into a more sustainable friendship. The question is, does the friendship remain when one person quits blogging? Hmm…
I’ve told everyone about my blog, except coworkers, so I am pretty open about sharing how I’ve met people (except with coworkers). You can really tell when people “don’t get it” though! It’s the same people who ask “why would you want to write a blog?” and look at you with blank stares.
Themocracy
Hehe – I would like to think I am forming some lasting friendships from blogging, but I have wondered how they would do if I quit blogging.
As far as people not getting blogging… oh do I know 🙂 But I also don’t have a lot of family and friends (from college/high school) who are that interested in food/fitness, so it hasn’t been that surprising.
I’ve met a couple of local bloggers and it is really nice to meet someone for the first time and know you have things in common….and to feel like you already know them! Makes first meetings a little less awkward when you already know a lot about someone.
I have never met any of my blogger friends in person. I would love to attend one of those conventions where everyone meets up for the weekend. From the pictures and reports, it always looks like everyone has a great time!
UGH- I just posted a super long comment that didn’t go through! I will try again:
The only blogger I’ve met is Morgan. I think of her as a friend the way I would anyone. If people ask how we met, I tell them. If they don’t I let them assume whatever. I have no need to explain my friendships to anyone. When I started my journey, I lost a lot of friends (a post I am working on now) because they just couldn’t understand it and didn’t bother to try. It hurt a lot but I am better for it. Blogging has brought so many wonderful things into my life, and I know that some people don’t understand blogging, but they don’t have too. For me, whether I meet them or not…and some I will and some I probably will never, they are still friends. Just like “real life” some bloggers are aquaintences, some okay friends and some are people I chat with often and consider them close.
Sorry about your commenting issue!
I feel the same way about the different type of blogger friends like you do – I email some and meet them for lunch weekly, others, enthusiastically look forward to their posts (like you)… others, I just comment from time to time.
I am looking forward to reading the post you are working on!
I posted my response on my blog 🙂
I’ve yet to meet any bloggers in person . . . but I’m fairly new. Luckily Angela from Oh She Glows is doing a Toronto meet up next weekend so that will be my first IN PERSON event!
You must be so excited! I bet Angela is just marvelous in person! 🙂
i read this girl’s blog about 6 years ago….it was the first, and at the time, only one i read. i was writing, mostly about relationship issues at the time. she changed her page and put a password on it, and said if you wanted to follow her, to just email for the password….so i did.
6 years later, one trip together, and one coming up in April, and we are still friends! she is a person i can tell anything to, and i don’t know if that’s a nature of the blogging relationship. she is the best!
I tell people exactly how we met, because it’s cool. i met my husband online, why not friends? I plan to try to go to blogher this year….hopefully with this friend.
How cool that you have been friends for 6 years!
You know, at first I did not understand the online dating thing, but it is the same as meeting people through blogs, maybe a bit more aggressive. How lucky we are to have this!
I’ve only been to one blog meet up and I met some really nice people. I consider all my commenters friends…I love to hear from everyone, even if I don’t get to meet you all.
Sophia from Burp and Slurp is SO sweet, I feel like her older sister or something. And I email with Kim from Adventures in Wanting so she seems like a friend too, even though I haven’t met her yet.
I’ve only met one other blogger, and while we had a great time together when we saw eachother we didn’t get together that often… we both had a lot going on at the time.
Yep, i have meet a few. Two are some of my really close friends and they are no different than if we met any other way.
I’m actually meeting up with two blogger friends for a long run on Sunday (Jill and Tara). This is my first ever blogger meet up and I’m not expecting them to be pscyho murderers. Should be fun.
I tried to meet up with a blogger at a race in Madison but it didn’t work out. I do hope to meet you at the Wisconsin Marathon in May. That will be my first actually meet up. My friends and family do not know of my blog. It is my place to vent and whatever I want. I guess I eventually will have to let someone know how I met or know another blogger.
We are definitely meeting up! The WI half is so small, it wouldn’t make sense for us NOT to! 😉
Sometimes I wish friends and fam did not know of the blog… but then I would have to do a lot more work at keeping in touch with them. Ha ha!
Hahah, obviously I’ve made friends via blogging! In fact, I’ve met quite a few people via my running blog and my LJ. When I flew out to California last summer to run that race with Holly we loved telling people that we met via blogging and this was the first time we’d met in person. Most people thought it was awesome!
I love meeting people through blogs. I hate making small talk so I love that I usually already know a lot about the person and we can skip most of the “getting to know you” chit-chat.
My mom doesn’t really understand blogging but I think she appreciates that it has allowed me to make so many friends.
I have had great luck meeting bloggers in person and having them turn into “real life” friends. Like you! And other Chicago peoples. 🙂 And some of my closest pals are bloggers that I met through blogging. I think it’s totally awesome.
I’m beginning to think I live in an area of backward people. I’m the only blogger I know! I absolutely love the online conversations with other bloggers. That’s what keeps me going. As for friends? I would define those bloggers more like friendly aquaintences that I would enjoy developing a deeper online friendship with. Love the food and exercise blogging community.
I have met 2 bloggers, 1 twitter-friend, and some great friends through meet-up. I am always open about where I know people through because I like to emphasize that the net is a great way to meet people you might not otherwise meet! Blogging particularly is great for this as it is more personal.
I have yet to meet any bloggers in real life, but a whole group of us are running in Disney next weekend and are going to meet up … I am so excited!
Yay! You are going to have a blast. I cannot wait to read all about it!
Unfortunately I haven’t met any of my blogger friends in person. I am hoping to remedy that. But I do have to admit that there are a few of the bloggers that I feel like I connect really well and put them in the friend category even though I have not met them in person and feel like when we do meet in person we would hit it off from the begining.
There are bloggers I haven’t met that I feel like that with too! Bloggers like… you! 🙂
I haven’t had any blogger meet-ups (yet) but I would like to! It would be cool to meet the person behind the writing because a lot of times it’s not who you’d expect
before i started blogging i would have shit all over the idea of being friends with people you met via blogging. now, no way! i stil havne’t had the pleasure of meeting any fellow bloggers but i KNOW i will soon and i can’t wait!
ps i got my necklace!! somehow it still arrived sans postage? lol!
Well I have yet to meet a real blogger other than my 3 friends who I already knew that blog. I would love to do a blogger meet-up, so if anyone is EVER in Idaho give this girl a hollar! Lol – How fun that your friends are blog friends. The more I am learning about the blogging world the more I love it. I feel that you really get to know someone through their blogging and in turn I probably know more about the day to day of bloggers than I actually do of my regular friends. And if I had real blog friends I don’t think I would think of them as anything different than friends. Heck, I haven’t personally met you, but I consider you a friend. 🙂
I consider you a friend too! 🙂
You know, maybe we do know our blogger friends more deeply, because they are so open on their websites! I hope you get to meet some other bloggers soon! I wish I could come visit 😉
Oh man, good question. I have met a few people through blogging and I’d consider them my friends, even though we primarily get together for things surrounding running. But, I suppose most of the things I do in general are related to running. One of my favorite things is that a few of my casual friends have started blogs and it’s very fun to know more about them through the medium.
I also find myself “I have a friend who…” but I’ve never met the person in real life, only through blogs.
Oh gosh. I do the “I have a friend who…” thing and people think it is weird when I tell them it’s a blogger.
You know, for runners, the blog is such a great tool because it allows us to meet new people to run with… and it is so much fun!
How cool that a random twitter friend was there!
Oh, and last weekend I net a twitter friend for the first time! We happened to be tweeting that we were at the same place after a race and it turned out we were in line just a few people apart. Pretty cool!
I haven’t met any local bloggers yet, but I’m planning to meet Missy (from MissyMaintains) at the next weekend of our Integrative Nutrition program, and hopefully some other people soon!
Mind if I look you up when I head to Chicago this summer/fall?? My brother-in-law is moving there, and I’m so excited to have a reason to finally visit! I’ve only been in Midway for a layover 🙂
Have fun with Missy this weekend! Meeting bloggers is SO FUN!
PLEASE look me up when you are in Chicago this summer/fall. I would love to meet you! Just let me know when you’ll be here so I make sure I am around!
Actually, I do have a real life friend who I met via my blog. I always forget about that because I consider a “normal” friend now and forget how we met. Ha. She was also struggling with an eating disorder and happened to live about 5 minutes from me, so we met up at the farmer’s market one day and just clicked. She has a great sense of humor (and appreciates mine) and she’s helped me through some hard stuff (and I hope I’ve done the same for her). She’s actually spending a year in France now, but we keep in touch. It is awkward to say how we met. We went out to dinner with one of her friends once and we got asked that question. We both kind of stumbled over the answer. It’s difficult since our eating disorders are sort of private issues and most people in “real life” don’t know about our blogs. Anyway, I think blogging can be a great way to meet friends. If you lived closer, I’d definitely want to meet up!
I wish we could meet up too! I have a feeling we will someday!
Your friend sounds awesome! Too bad she is in France this year. I bet she is having a great time. What did you end up saying when asked how you met? It would be weird to put the ED out the on table. I bet people have really weird reactions.
I have a friend that I first met online and then in real life who turned out to have a blog. Otherwise, I’ve met zero other bloggers.
I have one local blogger friend here (Jessica), but I think it’s a little different because we went to the same undergrad without realizing it. There are a lot of bloggers who I think make good friends in real life (like you! I wish we lived closer!), and there are some that I’d really like to get to know outside the Internet. Then there are others, who I think I get along with much better on the Internet than in face-to-face interaction.
LOL. Ah yes, there are those that I am sure I could only tolerate online.
I wish we lived closer too! I was thinking about you during my 9-miler this morning, thinking running with you would have made it much more fun!
hmmm! i actually don’t have in person friends who are blog friends. but i def feel closer to some blog friends after enough time just getting to know them through the blogs. i keep thinking my “in person” friends might have a blog or soemthing, but so far no one has really made one. and my blog is n’t super widely known, just my fam and a few friends. it’s on facebook now so might get more exposure there, i kind of wish there woudl be more overlap 🙂
I have made some wonderful friendships with fellow bloggers. I ran the vegas marathon a few years ago and Jeff, who I had only ever know from commenting on my blog, came out and biked beside me.
I love meeting and being friends bloggers!
I don’t have any blogger friends that have turned into real-life friends.. yet. Can I see it happening? Totally and I’m sure it will. You’re right when you say how some people just don’t “get it”. One of my friends can’t understand why I would want to be friends with someone I met online because I don’t really “know” them. The thing is, why NOT be friends with them? Blogging is a great way to meet new and interesting people that you may not normally get the opportunity to meet. 🙂
And… you don’t really know someone when you first meet them in a more conventional way either (at a party? HA!). I love how blogging has let me meet so many people!
YES! some of my very best friends i actually met through the blog 🙂 i dont consider them any different from my other friends at all. we just met a different way 🙂 plus they kind of understand the whole aspect of life that the blog involves.
I’ve only met one blogger in real life—someone you met actually!! Flea! We both happened to be going on vacation to Vegas on the same weekend last year so we just met up for dinner. The non-blogging friend who was with me was perplexed-we’re having dinner with a stranger?? Ha! No, she’s a blogger-friend!
I love Flea! How cool that you both happened to be in Vegas!
Erin was the first blogger who became an IRL friend! You were the second! Knowing something about your lives before I met you made me much more comfortable — we had things to talk about and nothing makes my anxiety worse than making small talk and wondering if I’ve inadvertently put my foot in my mouth (because I’m pretty good for that :)).
Good point! When you meet bloggers, you have TONS of things to talk about! 🙂 And it’s really fun reading someone’s blog after you’ve met them! It’s like you have an insider view.
Yes, I have. I count Dave from Blogography and Hilly from Snackiepoo as friends, mostly because we have met in real life and share some common likes and dislikes. There are others that I’ve met, too, that I consider friends.
I’m sure if we met in real life, we would be friends. As long as you are ok with me having my meat products, it will all be good. Ha ha… Actually, you’ve shown all of us how to have some great meals without meat. And they say friends learn from one another.
Marty! You totally crack me up. I have plenty of friends who eat meat and it doesn’t bother me one bit 🙂 I bet we would make fast friends! Especially if you’d let me ride Scutah.
Thank you for your nice compliment about my vegan food! 🙂
Oh, I know… my attempt at trying to leave a funny comment. And for sure, you can ride Scutah anytime. I just have to find a way to road trip it to Chicago. lol
I haven’t met another blogger in person, but I’m still a pretty new blogger. In time I’m sure that will change.
I did however meet my closest friend online many many years ago. We met through an eating disorder support forum. We helped each other through, and she has become one of the most important people in my life. I never would have met her had it not been for the internet.
Yah, some people don’t understand, but they don’t have to.
Forums! I used to use forums and sometimes miss them (although they were such a time suck). It’s great you met a close friend there!
I’ve met a few bloggers in person, even one that came from Australia to meet me! I’ve also met a few bloggers that happen to live within the distance of a marathon from me. Friendships are a little different, because I can talk to them about running and they ‘get it’. They know what it’s like. My friends before running don’t understand, and just ask me why. and how do I find the time, and again, why. It’s ok though. 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
I definitely consider my blogger friends (like you) real! I often talk about them to my family or other people I know – my mom and I are often on the phone saying things like, “Oh did you see how Kim went rock climbing last weekend?” 🙂 I have only met one person in real life through my blog and she doesn’t have her own blog but reads mine, and happens to live in my area. The thing I find weird is that a lot of my “normal” friends don’t bother to read my blog, I guess because they feel like it is just a “training blog” so not really interesting to keep up with…while sometimes I post about more personal things and it’s like they miss out on an important part of me. Do you know what I mean? For me, when i am writing my blog, it feels somehow like part of a conversation I am having, because i have certain specific people in mind as I write.
I am surprised when certain people don’t read as well… because I think they would really get to know me better if they did! Ha. Is that selfish thinking? I am not calling you selfish, because I feel the same way!
I feel that my blogger friends who have become IRL friends are the ones I trust more than the pre-existing IRL friends. They “get me” more because we have more shared interests.
Although, interestingly enough, I’ve had several pre-existing IRL friends that have taken up blogging after first giggling at me for doing it myself. More and more people are seeing the value. I hope it keeps up.
I was lucky enough to meet some bloggers and it’s great! Now with Facebook and blogging, I basically consider my blogger friends to be real life friends! The line is so blurred and I don’t mind it one bit!
Yep! I have one especially who is coming to visit this weekend. I guess in real life we’ve seen each other three times in the 9ish months- she lives a few hours away or it would be more. We went to the same college, so if people ask how we met I use that as a leeway to “but we didn’t know each other and eventually met online”…LOL!