Meet Colin!

    A friend of mine named Colin lives three hours away from me. Although the distance is somewhat of a drive, just the other day he came to visit in a spur of the moment decision. Neither of us had anything going on and it had been a while since we've seen each other. He left Portland at around 4pm and wasn't even planning on staying the night, he had planned to stop by, say hi for a few hours then head back. Luckily my roommates and I convinced him to spend the night and he crashed on our couch. I think this recent story is a great example of where our position is at in the Knapps Relationship Model, The integration stage.

    I had first met Colin during the 8th-grade summer. From our short encounter, I hadn't anticipated that he would be one of my best friends all throughout high school. Shortly after high school graduation, it was apparent that I would be moving away so we wouldn't be able to hang out as much as we did before. Luckily, we would still be able to stay in touch through any form of online communication. When reaching out to Colin, it was somewhat difficult because he would rarely reply to Snapchat's, or it would take him a few days to open the message. Eventually, he wouldn't even open my Snapchat messages at all. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. But knowing Colin, I knew that if he was upset with me he would've said something. In another attempt to reach out, I called him. When he picked up, he was cheery and everything was as it was before I left. He informed me he deleted Snapchat and that's why he hadn't seen any messages from me. 

    Because I was so reliant on a social media app, it caused me distress and worry. If I had used any other form of communication like text or call, it could've been avoided. Although it was just a small issue, I think it goes to show how integrated these apps are for people my age. I often forget that Instagram and Snapchat are just apps and that you shouldn't worry if someone takes a while to respond. Their online presence is not their life and they often have other things going on.