In Person vs. Online Friendship: 3 Ways to Find Balance

Kaarin Anderson Ryan, PhD 9.6.24

How many times a day do you have online interactions with friends, including social media, texting, even video calls? And how many times a day do you see your friend face-to-face for social interaction? if you are like most people, you have far more social interactions online than in-person. There is nothing wrong with online interactions, really, unless you stop making time for seeing people in-person. Here are some tips for finding balance:

- Consider how much time you spend each week in online interactions. If it is hours per day, think about investing some of this time to meet a friend for coffee instead.

- Think about people you really enjoy who you have not seen in person for awhile and reach out to one or more of them to see about getting together.

- Set a goal for yourself to intentionally see friends in person on a regular basis, which can mean more than once a week or maybe only once a month. Just making it purposeful will help you with the online/in-person balance.