Finding Ninee » Sharing our parenting and special needs stories with heart and humor.

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better)

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better) KRC

You ditch math class (and speech class, and that other class that starts first thing in the morning) to drink beer with friends before your dad gets home.

Er, maybe you didn’t… but well, anyway.

Your friends are people you can’t imagine not talking to 1,001 times daily even though you didn’t know their names a few years ago when you were in biology together.

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better)

Online friends and blogging, like much of life, is an eternity and also a blink in time.

You can’t remember not being a blogger.

Not knowing the people you’ve met online would be a travesty.

You get weepy when you think of quitting the blog world, because you can’t imagine not talking to your friends even though you didn’t know their names a few years ago when you were just a regular person who didn’t share intimate life details on the internet.

This is how How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better).

 

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better) freshman

You remember being a freshman, and how high school was exciting, scary, and somehow still smelled like first grade, except sweatier with more hairspray. Your friendships were forming, and you believed that the cool and older kids would surely notice your uniqueness and invite you to hang out in the West Lobby after lunch.

You were nice to everybody – even the weirdos – because the school is huge, and most of your junior high friends don’t share your schedule.

As a freshman blogger, your online relationships are tentative. You comment on the cool kids’ blogs, waiting for a reply you never get, but you’re hopeful.

Your blog is unique and cool, after all. Just like high school freshman you, who had the required pink Reebok shoes.

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better) sophomore
As a high school sophomore, you know where the good lockers are, where to eat lunch, and realized that some of your classmates are actually “Doing It.” As in, going all the way.

Weird, gross, and you pray for a boyfriend before graduation and wonder when you’ll be “Doing It,” too.

That’s the year you start to realize you aren’t as unique as you used to think you were, and realize that just because you have pink Reeboks, well… they don’t make you cool.

When it comes to online friends, the sophomore year in blog land is when you realize some of your colleagues are getting paid to post, and they’re doing more than you are.

Which is weird, gross, and you pray for people to offer you money for your words, too. It’s also when you realize you weren’t as cool as you thought you were, and add some sidebar widget things to your blog. Join some writing groups.

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better) junior
Junior year is both easier and more serious. They tell you to start looking at colleges, even though you just got your driver’s license, and make questionable decisions hourly. That’s the year that you know pretty much everything, and tell your parents that you can’t wait to be on your own.

They laugh at you, knowing how badly you’re going to suck at laundry and not eating candy at midnight.

Online relationships in the junior year of blogging are now tattooed on your heart and in your head, and you roll your eyes at people who think that friends in your computer aren’t real. You know that your online relationships are often more real, because let’s face it. Nobody shares the kind of shit we share online with moms at the playground. That’s the year you quit bothering with the cool kids, because you’ve found your people, and the cool kids have sold their souls for free crap. You’ve also sold your words for free crap by now, because, hello? Who doesn’t like free crap?

How Online Friends are Like High School (but Better) senior

By the time you’re a senior, you’re terrified and exhilarated. You’re almost free, and almost grown up enough to realize that you’ll soon be leaving everything you’ve ever taken for granted.

You’ve chosen a college, or to not go, or whatever, and the weight of SATs and ACTs are off your back, giving you freedom to drink beer at the reservoir with friends you can’t imagine not talking to 1,001 times each day, even though you didn’t know their names back in biology class.

I like to think I’m not yet in my senior year of blogging and online relationships, because I plan on holding on tightly to the people I’ve met through writing. Also, I haven’t finished my book in spite of Nanowrimo, and therefore, still show up to class every now and again.

kristi rieger campbell finished post for finding ninee

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. This week’s (complicated and awesome, in a Clark-way) sentence is “A study released by the Department of HHS reports that most people consider their online relationships comparable to their social experiences in high school… this is true because….”

Clark is our sentence thinker-upper and co-host for the week. Feel free to write about how blogging is like high school, about online relationships in general, about high school relationships, etc. Clark has been doing Finish the Sentence for about as long as I have and this is his first time hosting! Also, I love him, even though he didn’t eat breakfast with me that one time in Jersey. Like he’s a too-cool senior or whatever.

 Loading InLinkz ...


  • Emily - This was great – so creative and yet all so true too! It’s funny bc I was thinking about blogging earlier today, how I miss it and miss having tons of things I wanted to blog about and now I can barely think of anything I at least want to write about…I’m trying to figure out my next phase of being a writer/blogger and where I want to focus my efforts (write a book? Blog again but with different focus? Only blog when it’s a finish the sentence prompt?)…we’ll
    See!November 16, 2017 – 10:49 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - OMG I wonder about blogging all the time. YES to blogging when it’s a finish the sentence friday prompt! Well, yes in my opinion, anyway. 🙂 November 18, 2017 – 11:02 pmReplyCancel

  • Kenya G. Johnson - Loved this! I’ll put myself in the graduated category and went to graduate school or for a second degree and constantly ask myself did I make the right decision. But we know that taking a break means you almost never go back right?

    I wish someone would invent a Naniwrimo for “summer break”.November 16, 2017 – 10:50 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - LOL to graduate school or for a second degree and constantly ask myself did I make the right decision because YES YES YES. For real! And yeah, the break thing — you almost never go back. But still, sometimes? I so want a break. And some people take breaks… Right??? November 18, 2017 – 11:04 pmReplyCancel

  • Kenya G. Johnson - Forgot to say that I ❤️ that picture of you!November 16, 2017 – 11:01 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - Aw thanks! I think I was more like 20 in it which isn’t exactly high school, but I only had an hour to write and post and find pics and and and ugh… but thank you! November 18, 2017 – 11:05 pmReplyCancel

  • JT Walters - First Kristi, beautiful picture dude.

    Second. what?? Your book is not finished?? I plan on being ur beta, if you want?

    Third, every word you write is dripping with fantastic specialness.

    Fourth. Online relationships are way better than high school because it is an introvert’s paradise.

    Fifth, Online relationships are like High School in that we do share way way too much online but the time flies by so quickly. I don’t have a blog but a Facebook page for my art. In one day, I can get so many hits it is impossible to do anything but answer them. I don’t dare ignore my account overnight either as I belong to writing and painting groups; one of which is my own.

    I don’t see the pettiness in my online friendships that I had in high school but we are all grown ups. It would have been lovely to block some people in high school as it would be in real life. Online relationships give you that ootion.

    Finally, dude I have seen way too many male members online. I saw zero in high school. I wasn’t that kinda girl. I still am not and yet I am always surprised by the photos. That part of online. I could do without.November 16, 2017 – 11:02 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - 1. THANK YOU. I think I was 21 or 20, so not really high school but I was in a hurry2. I SUCK at doing this. I need to take time and yes, I’d love for you to be a beta3. OMG that’s so amazingly kind. THANK YOU. 4. Truth. 5. Yes. But it’s ok to ignore your account overnight. People will still love your art. 6. Gross to the male members online. It sucks to live in a sexist society where men sending dick pics is funny but a woman doing the same would be a slut. It’s just wrong. November 18, 2017 – 11:08 pmReplyCancel

  • Dana - This is so true – I was skeptical until you made the connections. I feel like I’m a junior, and I’m happy to stay here. With you, please.November 17, 2017 – 2:27 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - Aw thanks, Dana, and I am happy to stay a junior or senior too. I don’t want whatever is next and was skeptical writing it because WTF but Clark made me and it’s mostly true, right? November 18, 2017 – 11:09 pmReplyCancel

  • Allie G smith - Awesome post. Descriptions, and the blogging World descriptions. I really enjoyed reading this. I miss you and I know we have to catch up soon. I promise we will!November 21, 2017 – 7:30 amReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - I miss you too and yes, please, to catching up!! Sooner than later (said knowing it’s Thanksgiving on Thursday *gulp*). xoxoxo November 21, 2017 – 9:13 pmReplyCancel

  • Linda Atwell - You speak so much truth! I know we didn’t know each other’s names just a few years ago but I am sure glad we do now. Hopefully, someday, we will both make big $$$ for people to read our words. You go, girl! or if you prefer, You go, WOMAN! I’m cheering for you and your book!November 21, 2017 – 9:15 pmReplyCancel

    • Kristi Campbell - Aw, thanks, Linda! You’re in inspiration for sure on the book front! Here’s to making $$$ from people reading our words. I’m so glad to know you and hope it’ll be in real life soon!November 22, 2017 – 8:30 amReplyCancel

  • My Inner Chick - –I can def. see the connections w/ high school and blogging.
    There are the “Popular girls,” of course, the weirdos, the intellectuals, the burnouts…Kind of like the Breakfast Club, right?
    Anyhow,
    you are so gorgeous.
    Even though I have a college degree,
    I feel as if I’m still in H S. xxxNovember 29, 2017 – 11:34 pmReplyCancel

Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

*

*

N e v e r   m i s s   a   n e w   p o s t !