Let’s explore why??
Okay, can we be honest for a second? Online, I’m unstoppable. I reply fast, I crack jokes, I even sound confident. But put me in a real-life conversation in a classroom, family gathering, random social situation, and suddenly my brain forgets how words work. If this sounds familiar, you’re definitely not the only one.
I think part of it is how safe texting feels. You get time to think. You can delete, rewrite, add an emoji to soften things. Real life doesn’t come with an edit button. Someone looks at you, waits for an answer, and your mind goes completely blank. It’s not that we don’t have thoughts, it’s that we’re scared of saying them “wrong.”
Another reason? We’ve grown up practicing communication through screens more than through voices. Typing feels natural; speaking feels like a performance. And honestly, social media makes it look like everyone else is effortlessly confident, which just makes the silence feel louder.
But here’s something I’ve noticed: confidence in real life isn’t about suddenly becoming loud or extroverted. It’s about small moments, saying one sentence in class, asking a simple question, or even just making eye contact and nodding. The same way we learned to text without overthinking, we can learn to speak without over-editing ourselves.
The truth is, the “online version” of you and the “real-life version” aren’t enemies. They’re just two parts of the same person, learning different skills. And maybe confidence isn’t about becoming someone new, maybe it’s about slowly bringing that comfortable, chatty energy from your screen into your everyday conversations.
Start small. One sentence at a time. You might be surprised how much of your real voice is already there, just waiting for you to trust it.
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