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alexfardreamer@aol.com

As someone who has had constant Internet service for the past nine years and use it not just for browsing sites, shopping online, and working but also to socialize, I have been pondering long and hard about the issue of Internet friendships.

In my case, 90 percent of my friends are people I've not yet met in person, and might never get to because of distance or financial obstacles. (I don't, for instance, think I'll ever get to visit England's Black Country, where one of them lives.) Personally, I care about them, try to help them out when and if I can, and I genuinely believe the friendships are real and not fake.

What about you guys and gals in the forum? What are your views on online friendships? Are they real? Fake? Do you tend to treat online friends differently than, say, friends In Real Life?

leighdu

I work remotely and have met many business partners this way. Over the course of a year and a half of working with these folks though, I would definitely consider over half of them my friends and would treat them just as a real life friend if we were to hang out. There are just too many variables to this question. For example, there are also many people I have met playing an online game or something and we get on well, but I wouldn't consider them a real life friend at all, but more of an online buddy.

You also have to remember though, the many people tend to put on a fake persona over the internet. In my case with my work, there is sensitive information being passed across all the time so this scenario is totally different. But let's say you meet someone in one of these chat rooms. You could get to know them and think that they are really the person you are talking to and they turn out to be someone totally opposite.

Tommy

Some of them are, some of them are not. And yes, a lot of people are fake over the net. As someone said once, on the Internet, no one knows if you're a dog still there are some people you really get to know and care about.

Somnilocus

It definitely depends on the parties involved.. just like it does in "real life." In-person, not all friendships are real either.

I met my boyfriend online and we started dating when I was 16. We've met various times since. I'm almost 20 now and we'll be moving in together at the end of the year. I can tell you that I love him more than anything, and we know each other better than anyone else.

scribesunlimited

I met my fiancee over the internet, but for a while now we've been visiting each other, her coming to my country, and me going to hers. I think any online relationship can work, if you make the effort to see one another face-to-face instead of words-to-words.

Somnilocus

But, of course, anything more than a friendship can't last forever online. It needs to develop into the "real world" one way or another. So, even though they're real, there needs to be more. Just like talking over the phone wouldn't work for life. :P

Postman

I don’t think that this is an issue because some of my off line friends are just pretending so I don’t have anything against those online friends. I think that it would be better if we aren’t going to think of it this way.

digitaljohn

I think that you can have good friends online, but your better friends will always be the ones you have locally in person. How is someone 2000 miles away ever going to hang out or be there? You can be friends in other ways, but I think local friends are better.

Postman

I don’t really care if they are just pretending or not because all I know is that I’m going to help anyone that will be asking me some questions. Most of the knowledge that I got are from talking to my online friends so it will be a good karma for me.

alexfardreamer@aol.com

I know what you mean. I have had quite a few online friendships over the past nine years, and some have thrived, and some have not. And sometimes love does bloom online as well, and that sort of relationship, as you say, can work as well, but it can't be forever limited to IMs, e-mails, or phone calls.