# Missing Someone that you have never met. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815 "2000-12-22T04:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omega007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9adbd/32.png) [@Omega007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega007)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/1 "2000-12-22T04:04:27Z")
I’ve met a girl online and I am quite fond of her. She is leaving tomorrow to go visit her family for christmas. I feel that I am going to miss her greatly. The odd thing is that I have never met her in the flesh. Is it strange that I have feelings of missing her even though I have never met her? Let me know what you think… ---
**Author:** ![tiggeril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tiggeril/32/7234_2.png) [@tiggeril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiggeril)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/2 "2000-12-22T04:07:53Z")
It’s not strange at all. You know her well (as well as she’s let you know, of course). There’s no reason why you wouldn’t miss being able to talk to a friend. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/3 "2000-12-22T04:17:55Z")
Kind of a silly question. The people you meet online are just as real as the people you meet face to face. You get to know them, you just communicate via a different medium. Most people communicate with others by talking face to face. Others by talking on the phone. Others by writing letters. People can communicate with sign language. People can talk to each other online. All of these are equally valid ways of getting to know another human being. When someone becomes a part of your life, through whatever medium, you miss them when they are gone. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/4 "2000-12-22T04:30:09Z")
I’ve been without **racinchikki** for over a month :(. We met here on the SDMB, and hopefully we’ll meet IRL in July when she moves to Mississippi for college. She’ll be back online in about a week, though (I hope)! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nymysys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@Nymysys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nymysys)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/5 "2000-12-22T04:35:21Z")
\ I hear you. BOY, do I hear you! ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/6 "2000-12-22T04:40:21Z")
Before my trip to Sweden last month to meet **Anniz** , we only went a day in the three months we’d been chatting/e-mailing/flirting/talking on the phone without communicating with each other. It was pretty bad, I missed her then. Last week, we had another day when she was out of the country on a trip with her mother. It was torture. And, I remember bawling like a baby when Jim Henson died. I never met him, but I missed him. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/7 "2000-12-22T06:19:22Z")
Ask anyone who’s been here awhile about WallyM7. He was wonderful, and very much loved and respected, and when he died it shook the boards like nothing I’ve ever seen. Yet not one of us had ever met him IRL. Many of us miss him every day. ---
**Author:** ![Fanny\_May](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3be4f8/32.png) [@Fanny\_May](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fanny_May)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/8 "2000-12-22T08:11:38Z")
I’m kind of old fashoned, but I always tell the young people who come to the library to watch or even moon over people they daren’t talk to, I tell them to spend time with people you can talk to face to face, and the love-from-afar person will be soon forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/9 "2000-12-22T15:16:13Z")
Not strange at all. I agree that anytime you miss someone, you should spend time with the people you do have around you. I miss people that I’ve never met for whatever it is that touched my life. I also cried like a baby when Jim Henson died and Freddie Mercury and others too. I worried about David Letterman when he had his heart surgery. It’s ok to miss your internet friend. ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/10 "2000-12-22T15:28:43Z")
I heard a singer on NPR the other morning. Her name is Eva Cassidy and she has the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard. I went and bought her album that same day. It’s amazing. Unfortunately Ms. Cassidy died of cancer at the age of 33 in 1997. She only had one album out at the time. Now, the BBC has voted her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” one of the top 100 songs of the 20th century. It makes me really sad that I’ll never get to see her, meet her, tell her how her music touches me. I’ve never met her, but I really miss her. ---
**Author:** ![Anniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@Anniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anniz)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/11 "2000-12-22T15:31:48Z")
Nope, nothing strange at all. We are all real people online too. And do I miss you **Montfort** … Yep, badly. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/12 "2000-12-22T17:31:02Z")
There are people I’ve met online who I consider to be close friends, whom I’ve never met IRL and who I may never meet IRL. Some of these people I consider to be closer friends than some IRL friends. I’m with Opal here. Just because we’re not in the same room does not mean that we can’t share our thoughts and feelings. Being online takes the boundaries of color, gender, age, religion and politics and makes them irrelevant. To answer the OP, tho, yes, I miss these people terribly 🙂 Robin ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2000, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/13 "2000-12-22T19:07:40Z")
Um, yeah, I think I can relate to this… \ ---
**Author:** ![Omega007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9adbd/32.png) [@Omega007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega007)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/14 "2000-12-23T06:43:52Z")
I’d like to thank you all for you kind words and for not making fun of me. I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was stupid or not, but now thanks to yall I am more sure of myself. I appreciate you all :). Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/15 "2000-12-24T07:02:55Z")
I miss my brother-in-law. I never met him, but we used to talk on-line all the time. He died in May. I know it’s kind of different from what you were talking about, but someone in the family told me I was nuts to miss someone I didn’t “know”. I knew him just fine, and probably better than anybody else. Thanks, I feel much better now! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/16 "2000-12-24T17:41:50Z")
Tiggeril-sorry for the hijack-but LOVE THE SIG. I’m in agreement-Mike is sex on a stick! ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/17 "2000-12-24T21:31:43Z")
When Jerry Garcia died, there were a lot of young people who felt that he could provide some sort of identity for them that they couldn’t find elsewhere. They were very lost in general and the Grateful Dead gave them something to believe in, so when he died they became very sad as if their whole world just fell apart. It had little to do with Jerry himself actually. I was lost a bit as well, but I really didn’t feel too much when he died. It wasn’t until a year or 2 later when I really started to fall in love with the guy. I genuinly (sp?) miss Jerry Garcia now, and wish I could’ve known him. I realize this has little to do with the OP, but, well anyway **Omega** , I hope you and she are back in touch again real soon. I’m sure she misses you as well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/18 "2000-12-24T21:33:51Z")
I miss people who are with me in the room. Somehow I can be with my kids and see the future when they are no longer living here, and it makes me nostalgic in advance. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-someone-that-you-have-never-met/46815/19 "2000-12-25T04:28:56Z")
Not only is it acceptable and normal to miss someone you’ve never met, you can also worry about them, be happy for them, rejoice with them, comfort them and support them. Just because you can’t literally reach out and touch someone doesn’t make them less of a person.