Help would loving someone I don't even know help?

[shotgun]

hello. The title might be confusing, so please hear me out. I recently found this person on social media, he's a year older than me and is from another city. I've looked through his profiles and I genuinely think we're so similar.
He's so pretty, he seems very funny (same humor as me) and social. I'm trying to interact with him more, even if it's social media, although he barely posts and whenever he goes live i get too scared to say something in the chat. I know it seems like some dumb middle school crush but I've just been so self-isolating my whole life, I get terrified of messaging a guy.

Now, my question is: Is it worth trying to hype myself up to reach out? I genuinely feel like someone from a brand new place would help me be more social. For fuck's sake, I'm 18 and barely got a "social circle" or whatever. I just want to see if it could work out, yk? Although there's always doubts, so I don't know what to do.

 

[distropian_]

I think you should go for it but don't get your hopes up, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take and all

 

[staplestable]

is there a reason to not try?
why not see how it ends up

and if it turns out bad, I assume you're somewhat suicidal already so there's not much to lose

 

[tiger b]

What would you advise someone else to do if they were in your shoes? That's probably your answer.

 

[madge1]

I take it that he has seen a picture of you and the on line conversation flow so why not ask him out for coffee or walk nothing to heavy keep it simple just go with the flow even if you become friends it's a good start

 

[BeforeYouFallAsleep]

I would reach out to him.

You don't really have much to lose compared to if you do nothing. You will 100% regret doing nothing and letting that chance go to waste afterward!
I am assuming that you are F? If so, your chances are prob higher than the other way around. Every guy would be happy to have someone dm them or ask them out.
And if you get rejected at least you know for certain that there was nothing that you could have done, which is really good for not having regrets!! :)

I know how you feel. I also want to love/be loved and really hope that it works out for you <3

 

[NeedAnEscape]

What's the harm? If it doesn't go well, there are plenty of other people in the world that you can spend your time with. It sounds like you two have some chemistry, and talking to him directly would allow you to get to know him better. In my personal experience, reaching out can go a long way. And, even with the chance that things don't work, well you never would've known either way by not taking the opportunity. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[TransilvanianHunger]

It's worth keeping in mind that what people post on social media is usually a sanitised, idealised version of themselves. It's smoke and mirrors. "Falling in love" with this image not the same as getting to know someone and love them for who they really are, and it's a good way to end up disappointed when the person fails to live up to the idealised version of them that lives in your head.

That being said, I would say that reaching out to this guy is not the worst idea in the world, with a caveat. Don't "hype" yourself up, don't build expectations, and don't think about it as "love". It can be a good way to practice reaching out to people, talking to strangers, building relationships with others. But don't do it expecting a love story. Do it to challenge yourself, and the practice you get out of this will be applicable to other situations in life regardless of what happens with this particular guy.