I know I have briefly mentioned this before in other threads, but never actually went into fully talking about it. I’ve wondered if it is more common than we think to assume friendships with others are closer than they really are. In other words, we may believe all of our friends or acquaintances like us just as much as we like them.

I have seen this backfire on others and even with me. I’ve made that mistake, which leads to hurt feelings and making those who were rejected to believe everyone is just hostile constantly. Yes there are people out there that really are just plain rude, but at the same time, there are people who actually may like you, they just may not like you as much as you like them.

In other cases, someone may assume they are best friends with someone when in reality, that other person doesn’t feel the same way. One may consider someone a best friend while the other person sees it nothing more than a casual friendship or even just acquaintances. Do you think this is pretty common? I think it happens more so than we realize. It can happen to anyone. Have you ever experienced this? Have you also had anyone think you guys were great friends or liked you a lot when you didn’t feel the same way?

This is also one of the reasons I like to take things slowly, that way friendships don’t become one-sided. I feel like that’s how one-sided friendships are born. One person likes the other way more and maybe even way too quickly. Has anyone ever made this mistake? I know I have, not so much anymore but I used to. I’ve had friends who made that mistake with others and they felt hurt, understandably so, when they realized some people didn’t feel the same way. It caused then to assume that people are just plain rude when in fact, they were liked just fine, just not as close. Some people are plain rude, but not all of them.