All of my IRL friendships are based around activities - we play games together, we volunteer together, etc. When someone moves away and we try to keep the friendship going, it always just sputters out after a few weeks or months. It just seems to devolve into small-talk / catch-ups that neither of us are really interested in (I don’t mind small-talk too much, but it can’t be 100% of any meaningful relationship).

So: What is the point of a long-distance friendship for two people who have no plans to live locally again? What am I missing?

  • dinckel
    16•4 hours ago

    Some of my closest friendships are people I’ve either never seen, or only got to meet a couple times. It’s not like living far away makes them worse friends.

    You never know what kind of situation you’ll end up in. One time my transfer flights got messed up, and I was left stranded in a random airport for almost a day. I ended up asking around, and one of those long-distance friends drove hours to pick me up, get me some food, and let me get rest too.

    Of course I’d love for them to live closer, so we can see each other regularly, but i’ll take what I can have