I've said that, both verbally and typed, so many times. Indeed I had an argument with someone over it, funnily enough they were an internet friend. They aren't any more, but that just goes to show that you can fall out with an internet friend after they have hurt your feelings over and over again. I'm a firm believer that if you connect with someone, distance, means and being able to see them doesn't matter.
Online friendships can appear every bit as real as traditional friendships but they're often a lot more fragile.
The main difference is that we only see part of the picture and the rest we fill in ourselves - that's why online friends can surprise us (in good ways and bad). Of course with real-life friends they don't usually just disappear off the face of the earth - online friendships often end that way.
I value my online friendships but I know that their basis is far more amorphous and insubstantial than the solid friendships I make in real life. That said of course, amorphous and insubstantial could be exactly what someone is looking for.
Warning: The opinions above are those of an anonymous individual on the internet. They are opinions, unless they're facts. They may be ill-informed, out of touch with reality or just plain stupid. They may contain traces of irony. If reading these opinions causes you to be become outraged or you start displaying the symptoms of outrage, stop reading them immediately. If symptoms persist, consult a psychiatrist.
Why not read some stories instead
NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber I think online friends are “real” even if it isn't in person. I like and care deeply for my friends online and feel I can open up to them. They mean everything to me. However it is funny how easy you can lose contact with online friends, how easy people can delete each other. Go from saying you’re my best friend, I love you, to deleting them. I know in the end that’s not a real friendship but one you thought it was. I think making and losing online friends is actually harder than real ones.
My first serious girlfriend, I met online. We talked for about five years before she came for a visit, and things clicked.
I completely agree - online friendships can be wonderful if you choose carefully and thankfully, I've chosen well.
I agree my Online friends are just as important as the ones i met face to face on a daily basis.
I have three online friends that I consider very close friends of mine. It's true we only know certain aspects of their life's, but sometimes it's easier to discuss certain things with others who don't really know you because they typically aren't going to judge you and will just offer an ear to listen. I'm very appreciative for the friendships that I have on and offline.
Yes, my online friends here are very important to me.
I very much enjoy my online friends. Its great to develop a relationship with people who live a long way from yourself, in other countries and with cultural differences.
I have made some wonderful friends online. A few people I have been speaking to for over a year.
Sometimes these friendships can be very fragile. You can read alot into the words. It may sound different then how they meant it.
I love my online friends. I have a few that are very special to me.
Yes, I am developing friends here that I care about and like. We would probably never have crossed paths in offline life for a variety of reasons but I like them. I get it. I don't chat with many people though, some people can have 15 black boxes open but I can only concentrate on one or two people so it has limited my contact with some people I would love to talk to. I think the internet has saved people from loneliness, maybe helps people open up more than you would offline and can be an outlet. There are pitfalls but the positive experiences make it worth it.
Internet; RL, life's a crap shoot. Good people and bad can be found anywhere at any time. Sometimes your luck and judgment are good and other times they suck. All I Can say in either is... GOOD LUCK!
Maybe if people got out into REALITY aka the REAL World. they would be able to make friends and be more productive rather than hiding behind a computrr screen ....
"Maybe if people got out into REALITY aka the REAL World. they would be able to make friends and be more productive rather than hiding behind a computrr screen ...." he wrote, wriggling his fingers across the plastic keys in a dance of confidence. He reclined and stared at his computer screen. Yes, it was a hard task, this business of self-observation, but he was man enough to rise to it.
People I have met through the internet have made me the happiest I have ever been, and also the saddest. You think you know somebody, and then you meet them. It can be destructive, or the most wonderful thing in the world.
Ut incepit fidelis, sic permanet.
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I have several on-line friends. One is very close and the others I hold close but not as close.
THEY ARE ALL MY FRIENDS!
Friends come in many flavors. All start with trust and then get better. Some we fall in total love with and marry and spend a life with.
I love all my friends but each at a different level or in a different way. Some are like kids some are like brothers and sisters, one has been my wife for 43 years.
All friendships include love at some level.
I totally agree. Friendship can be as real here than anywhere else.
Online friendship is as real as the sky! I have some cool online friends on Lush. Hell, I have an online friend that I met over Youtube and we've been friends for five years now.
I have made some great on-line friends. Not real??? Maybe to them..
I have to agree, friendships developed online can grow to be just as fulfilling as the ones in real life. They definitely have their advantages and disadvantages, and I've seen both.
I had an 11 month friendship with someone here long ago. We chatted for multiple hours pretty much every single day. Then she disappeared, and eventually I figured out that she wasn't who she claimed to be. Knowing that makes it hard to trust someone from online again when it's a strictly online thing.
The person who is probably my best friend right now I also met online. One of the benefits of online friendships is that it doesn't matter where you move, that friend is always with you. I've moved around a lot in the last 6 years chasing my career goals, so it's been hard to maintain friendships in the real world. But for the last 4 years, this friend has always been just an email or a text away.
The few people I've had the pleasure of knowing both online and in real life were the same, which has helped shape my view that the internet is a communication device, not an alternate reality. So if you truly get to know the person online, it's no different than if you got to know them on the phone, or even via letter as people used to with "pen-pals."
some of my best friends are here
