HOW TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE

Lately, I have come to realize that I communicate with more people online than offline. I put in greater effort to building a digital relationship than a traditional relationship. I mean, I haven’t met these people in my life before so sometimes it takes them longer time to know me for me and vice versa. And because of that, we find ourselves having more reasons to spend more time with them so we can create a deeper and more genuine connection with them.

In this edition of the Hivelearners topic, we are asked to share our thoughts on digital relationships and how to avoid it from going beyond what it should be. Well, I’m not sure if I completely understand what is required for this topic but I’m going to give it my best shot.

Our world keeps getting smaller by the day or bigger, depending on the angle we are viewing from and this is because, thanks to the internet, we have the opportunity to build and nurture genuine relationships and friendships all over the world. We are sometimes fortunate to find people who will genuinely care and support us as much as it’s possible with them. But then, there are more to it than meets the eye. As we all know, there is so much traffic these days as most people want to work remotely and this means they have an online presence to keep.

Over the years, thanks to the development of technology, humans are becoming more challenged to think of other ways to build relationships, good relationships and one of those ways are digital relationships. Just like our traditional relationships, building our relationships online requires almost similar skills because most of us tend to treat our digital relationships just like our traditional relationships. So, whether digital or not, there are just some important things that should be present in our relationships to keep it strong.

Essential Components For Thriving Digital Relationships

• Honesty: In a relationship where the persons involved haven’t seen each other, for me it is so unfair to be dishonest about things. Just like in our traditional relationships that we frown against dishonesty, it is no different here too. Whoever it is you’ve agreed to build a relationship with online, as much as you can, always stay honest and in cases when you can’t be honest, it’s best you keep things to yourself until you are ready to be honest.

• Communication: Good communication are like the building blocks that we use to fill the different spaces in between. People involved in digital relationships should be willing to dedicate good time to discussing about things that are happening to them that might affect their online relationships and also things that are happening to them in any other areas of their life. And also, they should be able to communicate the things they like and find concerning in their relationship so as to find solutions to them and make things better.

• Emotional Maturity: This is one important quality that a digital relationship that wishes to lasts needs to have. Try to be attentive to the person’s voice, choice of stickers, emojis or gifs. Their tone of voice and even their language use. All of these will help you know when the person is either happy, sad, angry, lonely and the likes. When you notice that something is not the way it use to be, it’s fine to take out some time to think things through before responding so you don’t end up hurting them or even getting hurt yourself. And as much as you can, try to understand things from not just your perspective alone, try to see things from other possible perspectives as well.

• Set Boundaries: Setting boundaries are more like your own guide to help you know when things are going out of hand or ready for an action. For your online presence, sometimes it’s good to have your screen time and let the next person know so it won’t be like you are ghosting them at some point. Whatever your boundaries might be, always make sure to communicate them with the other person so he or she can be able to know how to respond adequately.

• Watch Out For Red Flags: Digital relationships have even more red flags to watch out for because you can’t be fully sure if truly this person is who you think they are. Depending on the kind of relationship you are building with a person online, that will help you know the red flags to watch out for. Always be attentive to how the person responds to you and their way of handling problems, this will show you the kind of person they are at least to an extent. Once you’ve found out a few things, if they are not what you like, make sure to talk about them and if the person is not willing to listen, it’s fine to stop putting in the effort.

I believe that with these few points, I have been able to help you see ways your digital relationship might be doing well or not and also a way to make things work out better.

Thanks for reading through. ❤️