A Love to Last Online: How to Make an Online Relationship Last

Everybody wants to experience love, especially the romantic kind. Amid a pandemic, hopeless romantics have taken to online dating in hopes of meeting a person that will make their hearts race and their cheeks flush. Those who were fortunate enough to form an online relationship should know that finding a match is only the first step on a long and winding staircase leading to their Happy Ever After.

If you wish to spend a long time with the other person, perhaps even forever, you’ll need to put in the time and effort.

Now, this is where it gets confusing for newbie online daters. Traditionally, “putting in the effort” entails planning dates and meeting up frequently. Such is not the case for online relationships. Even conversations aren’t the same with IRL couples, considering the limitations that phones and computers pose. 

Found the person you think might be the one on TrulyLadyboy? Not to fret—the relationship isn’t entirely doomed. It’s possible to make online relationships work by taking note of the following points. 

The Holy Trinity of Online Relationships

Pursuing a relationship with a trans woman may prove to be challenging, especially in a digital landscape. But, as with anything in life and love, there is always hope.

We’ve already mentioned that the physical aspects of relationships are often stripped away when it comes to online dating. Removing it from the equation leaves us with three fundamentals that can make any relationship, both online and offline, last. 

1. Communication is the foundation

One of the biggest hurdles that any couple faces today is also fundamental in any relationship: communication.

Now, we all know there’s no official playbook on how to communicate with our loved ones. After all, communication and, ultimately, relationships aren’t one-size-fits-all. However, there are a few factors that apply to all relationships. The first is the means of communication.

While you can’t chat with your partner face-to-face, you can come close to such a scene. Technology has come a long way after all. Nowadays, using Skype, FaceTime, or even Zoom allows users to see the other person’s face. Even social media platforms offer the video call feature. 

When there’s not enough time to sit down for a proper video call, there’s also chatting, texting, and voice call. Sparing a few minutes out of your busy schedule can lead to meaningful conversations, many of which will offer brief glimpses into your partner’s life away from a computer screen. 

It’s also worth bringing up that conversations between you and your loved one won’t always be pleasant. Humans are inherently unique, so friction and quarrels are often part and parcel of relationships. Just like regular conversations about your day-to-day, you’ll also need to resolve conflict through online means, removing the bonus that physical interaction often brings in fights.

It will take a lot of patience, understanding, and open communication to sort out problems together, especially when the relationship is built online. At one point, you may even feel the desire to hang up, leave the problem online, and go about your day. Try to fight against this. Having excellent and open communication between you and your trans partner as a foundation for your relationship can ensure everlasting love.

Recommended reading: Dating A Trans Woman: Expectations vs Reality

2. Trust is a must

Doubts and suspicions sometimes come to play when people enter relationships. Their presence is much more prominent for those who online date. It often feels as if people have separate lives, one part for the dating platform and the other for people who know them in real life. If you’ve ever felt a nagging feeling in your gut about your partner, try to hash it out with them after cooling off.

Another thing to consider doing is trusting your partner wholeheartedly. 

Remember that when you committed to an online relationship, you committed to the limitations and circumstances that this kind of relationship offers, which is being physically apart. Drowning in thoughts of doubt because you and your partner are not physically together can only lead to a series of anxieties. And can further lead to the demise of your budding love story.

So the best way to appease this is to strengthen your trust in your partner because you have nothing to lose when you choose or have chosen to love. Keep in mind; if you love, love fully despite any outcome.

Having mutual and complete trust can strengthen your bond and make an online relationship last. 

3. Honesty is the only policy

Finally, the factor that ties in with both communication and trust is honesty. By being physically apart, honesty takes a big role in making an online relationship last.

There are many rooms for error when couples decide to be in a relationship while being physically apart. There will always be doubts, suspicion, and anxieties. But with the help of good communication, creating a foundation of complete honesty will be the force that strengthens a couple’s trust in each other.

With honesty on the one hand and communication on the other, you can ease your doubts that can lead to a successful, loving, and everlasting online relationship.

Love and Quarrels

Now that we’ve covered the holy trinity of maintaining an online relationship, making love last shouldn’t be that difficult anymore, right? Not exactly.

The truth is keeping a relationship of any kind, whether online or offline, will always be a rocky journey. Here are some of the bumps and hurdles that might come up when trying to make an online relationship last and how to go about them.

1. Getting physical is to thinking creatively

It is common knowledge that being physically apart goes hand in hand with being in an online relationship. But there are days when you just really need your partner’s special touch.

So how do you make your loved one feel your touch without actually touching? One way is by going on actual dates through video calls and even staying on call until one falls asleep. Another way can be narrating how you wish to touch them, just like you feel things when you read or listen to books. Other couples can even stimulate physical closeness by playing online role-playing games. There are a hundred other ways to cross into physical intimacy, even in an online relationship. All you have to do is think creatively.

2. Longing is to socmed presence

Being in an online relationship also means that there are days of absolute longing and even days of doubt. When this happens, the next best thing to do is to let your presence be felt through the online world around your partner.

In the generation we live in now, having social media presence and being online equates to being “alive.” So to stimulate presence, you can try being on your partner’s timeline as much as possible. It doesn’t have to be all time, but just enough so they can feel that you’re around even when you aren’t talking.

3. Quarreling is to having a laugh

Fights and quarrels are always going to be around, but the key to make an online relationship last is to not make those fights last, and always end with a laugh.

Many successful relationships last long because of the magic of laughter. It’s not because one individual in the relationship is funny (although that helps too), but because a couple believes that fights and quarrels are temporary while their love is everlasting. Online couples should also believe that given the circumstances of their relationship, there are things that they just can’t control.

Issues in a relationship can be solved by asking forgiveness, adjusting for one another, and not taking life too seriously by having a good laugh. Remember, when the going gets tough, take a step back and have a laugh instead.

4. Hopelessness is to hoping

When committing to an online relationship, there will always be a question on whether it will last long. The key to overcoming these doubts is always having a positive outlook on your relationship and hoping for the best.

Shift your mindset from counting the days, months, and years that you’ll spend together into a mindset where you take one day at a time and love your partner to the fullest in each day that goes by.

There is always hope in love, even for the days where everything is hopeless.

The End Goal: is to Love

Of course, above all the fights, the doubts, and the trying times, in the end, remember that the goal is to love and be with your trans woman. Having the same end goal of finally being together physically and sharing one bed in one home will be the motivation that will keep you going.

When the relationship gets rocky, it’s always good to come back to this thought. To believe that the love you share online may only be temporary, and you will one day finally have the chance to be in each other’s love. It may even make things more exciting for the both of you! To rediscover your love once you take your online relationship offline.