[ SECRET POST #2455 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2455 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________

















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 061 secrets from Secret Submission Post #351.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[chordatesrock]

It's the internet. It's very easy, online, to read things without being seen reading them. For instance, if you're on AO3, have you ever looked at your hits-to-kudos ratio? What is it, on average? Thirty to one? Fifty to one? This is a known trait of internet interactions: people can be right there, hanging on your every word, without being visible.

When internet acquaintances don't show up to post or comment for a while, I assume they're listening quietly and don't have anything to add. Maybe nothing interests them enough to post about it; maybe they're too interested in a new fandom to make time to post. Maybe they don't comment because I haven't posted anything relevant to their interests, or because my posts got lost in their friends page.

For another thing, a month isn't that long, either. It's not unheard of for someone to desperately want to continue a friendship without necessarily panicking immediately. As you know, people sometimes take month-long breaks, so there are those who would wait longer than that before speaking up.

I would expect an unannounced absence to be noticed faster if you posted on a schedule than if you post whenever.

In my experience, it typically takes longer than a month between disappearance and "hey, where are you?"

That said, it's true that most internet friendships are never given a real test. You're not likely to know whether an internet friendship is real because few internet friendships involve one person being in a position to help another through a crisis. Does this mean they aren't real? It doesn't. It means you don't know.

I think you're right to cultivate RL friendships and recognize that you're not the center of your fandom's world, but nonetheless, I want to reassure you that your unproven internet friends might care more about you than you can tell.