It may not look like it, but I had a real struggle with that title. At first I wrote it with the word ‘friends’ replacing ‘connections. Then I thought, “Is it acceptable to think of people you only know online as friends?” In other words, is offline communication necessary to call someone a friend?
I decided it probably wasn’t, but meeting your online connections (or friends) offline can be a strange experience that’s not quite like meeting a friend you got to know offline. Plus, I hate repeating words in the same sentence (apart from necessary glue words) so I try and avoid it as a matter of principle.
Many of our readers will have experienced tweet-ups. If you come to our café events, Glostweetdrinks, any of the Jellies, #TheMeet140 or DigiTalks you’ll know what I’m talking about. You meet someone online, get friendly, share jokes and idle chit chat as if they were at the desk next to you. Then you meet face-to-face. This can be disorienting and scary. If you’re anything like me you’ll be trying to talk to them the way you do online but thinking “this is weird, I hardly know this person, and what do I say next?” You may forget their real name and keep referring to them by their Twitter handle (sorry @jonnop). You may be desperately trying to recall what your last online conversation was about and you may get mixed up and try to restart that conversation with the wrong person (sorry @Betti_Moser and @elliefleur).
Tweet-ups are a bit like internet dating, except instead of arranging one date with one person at a time, you agree to meet all your suitors en masse. It can be scary and intimidating but if you like them enough to talk to them on Twitter then it’s likely you’ll get along face-to-face too.
With that in mind, I’m off to #TheMeet140 tonight. It’s my first time and only a flying visit at that but I’m looking forward to more offline chat with my online/offline connections/friends/acquaintances/complete strangers….Why not walk over and DM me face-to-face?