Nine Reasons Why Blogger Friends Are Better Than Real Life Friends

I was looking at the messages on my phone the other day, and all of a sudden it hit me: I might I talk to more blogger people than real life people. 

I mean, I've texted 16 different people since June 1st. Of those 16, 9 of them are people I've met on the internet. And our conversations aren't about internet-y things. I have totally normal friend conversations with them about dresses and iOS 7 and weekend plans. They're just as much "real" friends as my IRL friends are. Don't get me wrong, I have some truly incredible friends in my life, and I'm grateful for them every single day. But this post isn't about them.

I've been blogging for almost four years, so I've made my share of blog friends friends. (I've also met my share of wackadoos, but that's a different post for a different day.) But what is it about internet friendships that make them so awesome? I've been thinking about it, and this is what I've come up with:

1. There's always someone to gchat with. 

Bored at work? It is almost a guarantee that at least one of your blog friends will be around to entertain you. And if you think no one is on? A quick "who's on gchat?" tweet will bring all the bloggers to the yard. Boom, boredness cured in 2.5 seconds.

2. Their physical location doesn't matter, because your friendship started off far apart anyway. 

Unless you hit the bloggy BFF jackpot and met someone who lived where you live, you're used to having your blog friends scattered all over the country. Any one of my blog friends could call me tomorrow and be like "yo, I'm moving to Africa" and it wouln't change anything. I mean, it would make a meet-up harder down the road, but for a relationship that's been built on emails, texts and gchat? Piece of cake.

3. Because your blog friends are so far away, you know you have a place to crash pretty much anywhere in the country. 

Right now, I know I have places to stay in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, Omaha, Hilton Head, Austin, and a smattering of other places. That's pretty freakin' cool.

4. You always have someone to bounce blog ideas off of. 

I can't tell you how many texts to Stevie have started off with "what do you think about ______?" Sometimes you have to get a second opinion about something, and since her brain is filled with just as many bloggy things as yours is, your blog friends are perfect people to talk to.

5. When you finally DO get to meet them, you don't have to worry about trying to hide all the weird things you do, because they do them all too. 

The first time I met my friend Laura in Richmond, when we got to the restaurant that night for dinner, the first thing we did was get the waiter to take a picture of us so we could blog about it. When we got our food, we each paused so we could tweet about how awesome our dinner was. It took thirty seconds, but since we were both doing it, the awkwardness that COULD have been there with a real friend is totally gone.

6. You can tell them anything. 

Got a juicy secret that you're DYING to talk about but you know you shouldn't? Tell your blog friends! They don't know anyone from your real life, so they don't care that your two coworkers are sleeping together, or that your two friends are in a fight. So gab away! Your secret is safe with them.

7. They're the reason you're good at thinking on your feet. 

Admit it: the first time someone looked at you and said "how did you meet her?" in regards to an internet friend, you panicked. What do you say to that, really? "This is my friend who I bonded with on the internet after she blogged about loving wine and leopard print shoes. Oh by the way, I blog. I'm a big deal on the internet." Uh, no thank you. Since you don't want to tell the truth, you've gotten really good at quick thinking. "Oh, her? Her cousin and I went to school together and we met at a party once when she was visiting." Boom. Crushed it.

8. The blogging community is the most amazingly supportive group of people ever.

This pretty much speaks for itself, right?

9. You know they'll always GET you.
Blogging is pretty weird, right? Unless you do it, you don't really understand it. It can be stressful and time consuming at times, and it's nice to be able to talk to people who are in the same boat that you're in. They understand where you're coming from when you tell them that you were up till 2am writing a blog post so it could go live in the morning. (They also love you enough to tell you when they think you need a break. Sometimes, we need that too.)

What do you love about your blog friends? Are you going to go give them a huge (virtual) hug right now? Yes? I thought so.