How to Make Friends Online
Table of Contents
Loneliness Causes Mental Health Problems
Loneliness is a mental health crisis
Loneliness causes mental health problems. For the elderly, it is a particularly serious problem because they have outlived their friends and, in many cases, even their spouses. Many elderly have mobility problems. It is hard or even impossible for them to get out of their homes to meet others.
Make Friends on the Internet
One solution is to learn how to make friends on the internet. My wife is bed-bound and requires 24/7 care. I rarely leave home. If it wasn’t for the internet, I think I would go nuts. Chats with people who share my interests help make life worthwhile.
Help Others
I like helping people connect. I’m not talking about some dating service. In fact, when we are talking about making friends, we need to define what a friend is.
Making Friends Takes Time
Making friends takes time. There are different levels of friendship:
* There is the person I just met and all I know about them is their contact information.
* There are the people I am acquainted with. I know their names, and a little bit about their families, their interest, and their work. This is the level of friendship we may have with our internet friends, We can chat with them, share ideas and ask for advice.
* Given more time we may develop the kind of friendship that lets us go to them for help and advice and it is a reciprocal relationship. They feel comfortable asking me for advice.
* There is the kind of friendship where you have physically met the other person and enjoy doing things with them. You may play cards or join a club together. The key here is actually spending time with each other.
* Finally, there is the level of friendship where you will actually lay down your life for the other person. Unless you have been in the military, that kind of friendship is rare. You can probably count the people you have that kind of friendship with on the fingers of one hand.
Building friendships takes time. Maintaining those friendships takes ongoing efforts. Maintaining friendships in our mobile society takes special effort. Many of the people I have been good friends with have moved away and I have lost track of them. They just fade away,
Stay In touch
In my life, I try to stay in touch with my friends several times a year. In my business, it is the same thing. I want to turn my clients into loyal friends who will enthusiastically recommend me to their friends.
In both cases, I can only do that by providing them with interesting, helpful, and entertaining information. If everything I send them is sales pitches, they will quickly cut me off.
My goal is to reach out to my friends and my clients at least 4 times a year. I’ll send them a card or give them a call. Of course, I use the internet to provide them with helpful content at least weekly.
After all, we are talking about making friends on the internet. My blogs are where my friends can follow my interest and watch my life as I evolve. For most of us, social media is a one-way street. I tweet, but it is hard to establish a two-way conversation. The best way is to comment on other people’s posts. When they respond to your comment you have the start of a real internet friendship.
Social media can be a major time suck. Don’t let social media become your life. You have to get out and meet real people if you can.
My Niche
I’m a relationship builder and a conservationist. I use my websites to share my ideas, concerns, and to build coalitions of friends who want to work together to accomplish a specific mission.
Check out my websites. They are devoted to subjects I am interested in. You may be interested too:
- This website, billsager808.com, is devoted to Personal Development. Because I’m in my 90’s, contents here will be slanted toward those who are retired or want to be retired. We will be looking at trends that affect our lives, what we want to do, and how we want to use our time.
- My second website, resilientlivingtips.com, is devoted to resilient living and living sustainably. being resilient is about being personally, financially, and environmentally resilient.
- My mission is to leave this world a litttle better than I found it. I can only do that one person at a time.
Financial Resilience
Most of us are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make ends meet. Most people will die in debt and we are not saving enough to provide for retirement and end-of-life expenses.
The only solution I can see is a business of my own that provides passive income from a variety of sources. My business has to have unlimited income potential, have low risk, allow me to work from anywhere, require minimum start-up capital and be low overhead.
The only business model I know that can fulfill those requirements is internet marketing. Basically, I’m a sales rep and use the internet to promote products my audience needs.
Business Relationships – Make Friends
Now, how does having a business of my own relate to building relationships, To be successful in business we need loyal friends. Too many businesses only send sales pitches. They send you junk mail and spam trying to sell you stuff.
I send that stuff direct to the trash. What I want is updates from friends and information that I am interested in. I try to recognize the important events in my friends’ lives. I send them cards for their Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Christmas or New Year.
If social media alerts me to a graduation in the family or any other important event, I send them a congratulations card. No sales pitch. I just don’t want them to forget me. Top of mind means staying in touch with a sincere expression of your gratitude for their friendship. A sales pitch reminding them how you can help them is OK occasionally, but if all you do is send sales pitches you are going to lose your friends,
Making friends takes time. It is worth the effort. The alternative is loneliness.
Live With Passion
Know what is important in your life and work on your most important thing a little bit every day. Find like-minded people who share your passion and get acquainted, stay in touch and make friends. Help them find their passion. You will both live longer, happier, and more productive lives.