Are online friends 'real' friends?

[AdAstrα]

Depends what you define as "real" I suppose...but personally, yeah, I think so.

[Si-Amber]

Friendship is what the two people make it

[SlayerOfLight]

No, I wouldn't call online friends ''real'' friends. Real friends are friends you know outside the internet, and who you have grown up with.

[ScarsLove]

A real friend is someone who is there for you. As long as you're there for me and we can talk and get along without fighting like cats and dogs. Then it doesn't matter where you are. I've sometimes felt closer to friends online than I have to friends irl. I've had irl friends never be there for me and only come around when it was convenient for them. While my online friends came around more often and made me feel alot better. Real friends are nice but in the real world, people often judge by appearance first and character later. Over the internet ( if you're being honest and upfront ) have to judge you based off of your words, interests, and actions ( whatever you would consider 'actions' over the computer xP ) rather than what style of clothing you wear, height, hair, weight, eye, nose, thighs etc. Not to say I'm some kind of hideous beast but you get what I'm saying It doesn't always have to be physical contact that makes people closer. Not to say it doesn't help to develop a friendship. All in all, online friendships can go either way. You have to be more cautious about people online but you have to be cautious in real life as well. People like to put on shows.

[WildSimba]

[quote="Nicholas"]No, I wouldn't call online friends ''real'' friends. Real friends are friends you know outside the internet, and who you have grown up with.[/quote]

I don't know about having to grow up with them. I've known my best friend for a bit over a year, and it feels like I've known him my entire life.

[Si-Amber]

[quote="WildSimba"][quote="Nicholas"]No, I wouldn't call online friends ''real'' friends. Real friends are friends you know outside the internet, and who you have grown up with.[/quote]

I don't know about having to grow up with them. I've known my best friend for a bit over a year, and it feels like I've known him my entire life.[/quote]

Yeah me and Shadowfax only met in our 20s.

[SlayerOfLight]

[quote="WildSimba"][quote="Nicholas"]No, I wouldn't call online friends ''real'' friends. Real friends are friends you know outside the internet, and who you have grown up with.[/quote]

I don't know about having to grow up with them. I've known my best friend for a bit over a year, and it feels like I've known him my entire life.[/quote]

I think you didn't notice that I put ''And'' between my first proclaimment and the last.

[Carl]

I didn't think this way before, but online friends can most definitely be real friends. Most of my friends right now are online friends and that's not because I don't try to make irl friends, nor is it because I'm treating people differently irl. It's because irl people make judgements about me before I have known them long enough to trust them with some things, and they leave before they've gotten to know me. I'm so much of an introvert that I have immense difficulty talking to people about personal issues even if I know them fairly well. I've always been better at using the written word to convey my thoughts and feelings. This makes it take less time for me to be able to communicate on a deeper level with my online friends than irl ones, which means they don't give up and abandon me. Of course it is risky to trust someone you meet online, but personally, so far, I've met more untrustworthy people irl than online. As such, I'll continue making friends the only way I can. Just because I can't touch someone or go places with them doesn't mean they aren't a real friend, and it doesn't mean they're not trustworthy. Just because I can do those things with someone else doesn't mean that person is a real friend or that they are trustworthy. People, online or not, are capable of masking who they are if they so choose. Every person we meet could have a secret life. Most of them don't. No reason to assume just because I've never 'hung out' with someone that they do have something to hide. That they aren't a good friend.

[WildSimba]

[quote="Nicholas"][quote="WildSimba"][quote="Nicholas"]No, I wouldn't call online friends ''real'' friends. Real friends are friends you know outside the internet, and who you have grown up with.[/quote]

I don't know about having to grow up with them. I've known my best friend for a bit over a year, and it feels like I've known him my entire life.[/quote]

I think you didn't notice that I put ''And'' between my first proclaimment and the last.[/quote]

Yes, meaning you're making it seem like those are both requirements for someone to be a "real" friend. If you were wanting to go for pointing out your statement was right, the correct word to use would of been "or".

[le0]

I definitely think they can be.