Making Friends the Cyber Way

May 28, 2025

“They think we don’t have any friends,” Lee said bluntly when asked about students’ social lives in cyber school. Big laughs followed from the four other high school girls at the Artists’ Open Studio, a weekly ArtReach workshop at PA Cyber’s Warrendale location.

The students worked on their own arts and crafts projects while chatting and laughing. They were finishing projects for display at the Spring ArtReach Showcase that was just two weeks away.

Kira created a shadowbox in the “weirdcore” aesthetic. “It doesn’t need to make sense,” she said. “Plus, it’s nice to make things that don’t make any sense sometimes.”

Lee chimed in, “Nothing I make makes sense, that’s why I like it.” She finished a drawing and moved on to a sewing project.

Their chatter covered many topics. Kira shocked the group by talking about a man who famously ate a plane. Kora (a different student but with a similar name) said she watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird for English class, and “it was so good.” They all shared an appreciation for the satisfying sound that a good pair of scissors makes when cutting fabric. The height of excitement came when the group burst into The Duck Song, a YouTube hit from 2010: “Hey! (bum bum bum) Got any grapes?!”

“This class is like a club,” said the teacher, Miss Lorraine, whose suggestions are well-received by the students. The girls also inspire each other to try new methods and materials.

“It’s a very fun, energetic group of girls,” said Beth McCoy, representative of the Warrendale office.

A couple of the students have met this school year via ArtReach, but others have known each other for several years. They hang out at each other’s homes, sometimes crafting. They agreed that making friends in cyber school is different than their experiences in brick-and-mortar school, but overall, the students are nicer. It’s a challenge, of course, when meeting someone in class that you want to be friends with, but they live across the state. Regional office events like ArtReach are a good way to meet peers who live nearby.

Meeting online first can be beneficial, though. “It helps that you can talk about your interests and not be face-to-face the first time you meet them, which can be helpful if you have anxiety like I do,” Lee said.

The group agreed it’s easy to stay friends over email, text, and social media. Jokes about carrier pigeons ensued.

There are bound to be some students they prefer not to interact with. It’s easier to set boundaries online, they said. Plus, they’re not in the same class with all the same students each year, like in brick-and-mortar. It’s a lot easier to move on from people, Andie said.

They shared the assumptions that folks outside of cyber school make about their social lives, that they don’t see anyone except their family members and don’t do anything.

Lee tilted her head and smiled, “We have friends!” She shook her finger. “I’ll say that again!”