12 Signs Your Friendship Only Exists On The Internet

You can’t remember the last time you saw your friend in person and she lives minutes away.

This doesn’t bother you, however, because you know what she ate for breakfast, what color shoes she’s wearing, what annoying comment her roommate made, which Starbucks she “checked into” and what song she’s listening to on Spotify. You can “hear” her inner monologue through text messaging just as clearly as if you were having an actual conversation. Speaking of conversations…

All of your voice conversations are over the phone or through video chats.

You feel just as satisfied after 20 minutes of a phone conversation than you would meeting up for a drink.

You’d rather text than…

While you used to meet up semi-regularly to go to dinner or out to a bar together, you feel just as close by exchanging constant text messages and emailing each other links to articles that make you think of each other. The thought of making actual plans leaves you stressed and coming up with excuses. You truly love your friend, but isn’t texting and sending photos back and forth just way more entertaining and efficient?

Who needs a catch-up lunch when you’ve got Facebook?

Your friend’s Facebook status updates provide you with the majority of information her day, how her family is doing and what her plans are for the week. Sometimes you comment on the photos she posts which triggers multiple back and forth exchanges that feel like a far easier way to catch up.

When someone asks you about your friend, “So-and-So” you realize you can recite every detail about her current life but you haven’t actually spent any time with her in months.

You think about trying to make plans, but with the 300 other things you have going on, it just doesn’t seem like a high priority. Besides, you already know what books she’s reading.

Without Instagram, you might actually forget what she looks like.

Her hair could be 5 inches longer since the last time you saw her. She could have gotten another piercing or added a tattoo. Luckily, their periodic selfies enable you to keep a visual image of them in your mind.

Instead of hitting the gym together, you’re using a Fitness App where you can track each other’s progress.

You receive updates on your phone from your friend about her meals, exercise and progress.

You FaceTime each other to watch TV together, tell each other funny stories, get advice from each other and even eat dinner together.

You start convincing yourself that you’re saving money on going out to restaurants, transportation fees and even on entertainment fees you’d have if you actually met up in person for a night out.

When someone asks you what you did the previous night, you respond that you “hung out with your friend.”

You realize that the person asking you envisions you and a buddy going out to dinner, hitting a happy hour or grabbing coffee, but you realize that the “hanging out” was via video chat.

You start associating your smart phone with your friend and have an odd affection for it.

The ring tone you’ve programmed to go off when your friend calls immediately makes you smile. You feel strange when you leave the phone in another room, like you’re missing something and constantly have the urge to check to see if your friend responded to your last witty text message.

It feels like a betrayal if you start texting with too many other friends.

It’s starting to take you longer to respond to your Virtual Friend and she’s starting to notice. She’s sending you texts like, “Are you playing hard to get?” and in turn waits longer periods before replying to your text questions.

You are not sure what color eyes this friend has.

You wish each other “happy birthday” on Facebook. Congratulate each other when having babies. “Like” each other’s photos and make occasional comments on the noteworthy ones. Yet you both know wholeheartedly that you have no intention of making actual plans for the immediate future.