Are online friendships "real" friendships?

Friends to me, online or offline. As long as they are there for you, at the end of the day and never disrespect you or your views on things. (to the point of annoyance I mean) Everyone has fights here and there. That to me, is what make up a friend.

If you happen to find that online, as well as in the real world. So be it! I won't hold it against you!
In terms of being real or genuine. That is for the individual to decide.

I do NOT consider online "friends"as a friendship, as this term is used to describe something that we experience with a person or many while we're actually living that moment with body and mind, for instance;
Going to a movie-theatre, playing soccer, helping your friend in case of an accident by staying with him, funny moment when you see your friend falling...etc.
While online "friends" are just a positive "relations" or contacts, yes we can call them friends but not a "friendship" as its long distance interaction.

This is what I believe, I read other people statements as it is actually a "friendship" but I am not convinced.


P.S. It looks like I'm the only person who said No, I must prepare myself for a mass attack hahahaahha
+ I'm the one who defined friendship as (experience we share by body & mind) and also stated (online friends are "positive relations"), based on my knowledge and experience, please do not load me with other thinkers theories and perspectives or some dictionary notions, please convince me something material basing on your experience!

Del said:

I do NOT consider online "friends"as a friendship, as this term is used to describe something that we experience with a person or many while we're actually living that moment with body and mind, for instance;
Going to a movie-theatre, playing soccer, helping your friend in case of an accident by staying with him, funny moment when you see your friend falling...etc.
While online "friends" are just a positive "relations" or contacts, yes we can call them friends but not a "friendship" as its long distance interaction.

This is what I believe, I read other people statements as it is actually a "friendship" but I am not convinced.


P.S. It looks like I'm the only person who said No, I must prepare myself for a mass attack hahahaahha
+ I'm the one who defined friendship as (experience we share by body & mind) and also stated (online friends are "positive relations"), based on my knowledge and experience, please do not load me with other thinkers theories and perspectives or some dictionary notions, please convince me something material basing on your experience!

Click to expand...

I mean... a friend is literally just someone you share mutual affection with outside of familial or sexual relationships. Going by what you've said though, it's pretty clear that you already know this and are kind of just choosing to ignore it.

So since you want something slightly more tangible I'll respond to you with a question. Do the activities you participate in with your friends determine how "real" your friendships are offline? Most people I'm sure would say no and I agree. The only real difference between online and offline is what you (can) do together. You can still enjoy each others company, you can play games, you can talk about things and thanks to sites like plug.dj/dubtrack you can even listen to music or watch videos together. You can't physically interact but in the modern era you're not really missing out on as much as some might think.

gimmepie said:

So since you want something slightly more tangible I'll respond to you with a question. Do the activities you participate in with your friends determine how "real" your friendships are offline? Most people I'm sure would say no and I agree. The only real difference between online and offline is what you (can) do together. You can still enjoy each others company, you can play games, you can talk about things and thanks to sites like plug.dj/dubtrack you can even listen to music or watch videos together. You can't physically interact but in the modern era you're not really missing out on as much as some might think.

Click to expand...

Adding to this, there's the aspect of just how much Real Life Friendships are already based in online activity, how there really isn't much of a difference aside from the matter that you may see one person physically in other friendly pursuits. There's so much overlapping that the distinction is more than a bit blurred at this point and I don't really care enough to define one kind of friendship from another.

They're definitely real. You're forming a human connection with someone from across the world. Friendship isn't the physical aspect, it's the emotional one. You develop emotional attachment to other people pretty easily, and they don't have to be in your presence to do that.

That being said, compared to offline friendship, they fail in comparison for me. Almost all of my online friends -- I mean the ones that know me so closely -- I have met offline, and our relationship has grown to be quite special because we met on the internet. We probably would have eventually lost contact had we not met up in person. But to say that internet only friendships are more or less better than offline friendships, I have to disagree. You just have more access to people on the internet who not only match your interests, but also match your way of thinking. And that's a lot more rare to come by offline, which is why so many people who spend time to develop friendships online tend to feel that their online friends are "better" than their offline friends. Mine certainly were growing up.

gimmepie said:

I mean... a friend is literally just someone you share mutual affection with outside of familial or sexual relationships. Going by what you've said though, it's pretty clear that you already know this and are kind of just choosing to ignore it.
So since you want something slightly more tangible I'll respond to you with a question. Do the activities you participate in with your friends determine how "real" your friendships are offline? Most people I'm sure would say no and I agree. The only real difference between online and offline is what you (can) do together. You can still enjoy each others company, you can play games, you can talk about things and thanks to sites like plug.dj/dubtrack you can even listen to music or watch videos together. You can't physically interact but in the modern era you're not really missing out on as much as some might think.

Click to expand...

Frieza said:

Adding to this, there's the aspect of just how much Real Life Friendships are already based in online activity, how there really isn't much of a difference aside from the matter that you may see one person physically in other friendly pursuits. There's so much overlapping that the distinction is more than a bit blurred at this point and I don't really care enough to define one kind of friendship from another.

Click to expand...

I would like to thank you first for your reply, as I really do appreciate it, and well done argumentative, just to clarify my idea in a brief way, I'll be listing them by points;
- I consider wireless/cable/internet or Online/Offline whatever as "Close relation", "positive relation" or just a "long distance relationship"; which he/she is an important person that we value!, and yes you said: "literally just someone you share mutual affection with outside of familial or sexual "romantic" relationships, (you can see I removed sexual, you'll see why later).
But I personally will say it can be applied on "friendship" and "long distance relationship", HOWEVER, the difference is that the friendship doesn't stop here, which makes the difference, as IN MY POINT OF VIEW, friendship involve physical, or at least, close by actions, experience!

[S-HIGHLIGHT] EXAMPLE: -> "Girlfriend" VS "Long distance Romance"

Woman from cafeteria
Face to face conversation, more intense feelings, nervous, eye contact...
Experiencing moments with your soul and body, sexual intercourses...

Woman met on, for instance, 'Tinder'
Typing (hard to describe emotions or(video-chat), limited feelings;
Romance basing on fantasy and imaginations (n*des)... [/S-HIGHLIGHT]
To me, all those elements are considered as "bonds" however, my use of those terms differ as the first commenter said and I quote;

lloebet said:

The definition of friendship is going to differ by person and that's what is really going to decide it.

Click to expand...

As I stated before, I distinguish those bonds basing on "mutual feelings and romantic relations" but bonds which involve manifestation of body and soul are an other thing! You Gimmiepie gave a certain notion within your definition; "sexual relationships", how can someone from long distant, or YOU actually never saw her/him, even you do not know as that "relation" didn't want to reveal their real identity for protective measures, make an intercourse a.k.a penetration with you? In my opinion I guess not!

With all my respect if I used some bad words or some misspelling, I'm just trying to demonstrate why I'm not aligning with your point.
Looking forward for your well structured reply guys!

Del said:

I would like to thank you first for your reply, as I really do appreciate it, and well done argumentative, just to clarify my idea in a brief way, I'll be listing them by points;
- I consider wireless/cable/internet or Online/Offline whatever as "Close relation", "positive relation" or just a "long distance relationship"; which he/she is an important person that we value!, and yes you said: "literally just someone you share mutual affection with outside of familial or sexual "romantic" relationships, (you can see I removed sexual, you'll see why later).
But I personally will say it can be applied on "friendship" and "long distance relationship", HOWEVER, the difference is that the friendship doesn't stop here, which makes the difference, as IN MY POINT OF VIEW, friendship involve physical, or at least, close by actions, experience!

[S-HIGHLIGHT] EXAMPLE: -> "Girlfriend" VS "Long distance Romance"

Woman from cafeteria
Face to face conversation, more intense feelings, nervous, eye contact...
Experiencing moments with your soul and body, sexual intercourses...

Woman met on, for instance, 'Tinder'
Typing (hard to describe emotions or(video-chat), limited feelings;
Romance basing on fantasy and imaginations (n*des)... [/S-HIGHLIGHT]
To me, all those elements are considered as "bonds" however, my use of those terms differ as the first commenter said and I quote;


As I stated before, I distinguish those bonds basing on "mutual feelings and romantic relations" but bonds which involve manifestation of body and soul are an other thing! You Gimmiepie gave a certain notion within your definition; "sexual relationships", how can someone from long distant, or YOU actually never saw her/him, even you do not know as that "relation" didn't want to reveal their real identity for protective measures, make an intercourse a.k.a penetration with you? In my opinion I guess not!

With all my respect if I used some bad words or some misspelling, I'm just trying to demonstrate why I'm not aligning with your point.
Looking forward for your well structured reply guys!

Click to expand...

You were quite right to correct sexual to romantic I think.

Anyway, I don't see much of a counter point. Physical closeness is not a prerequisite for forming any kind of relationship. Some people will inevitably value physical closeness more than others but I don't think that makes online friendships not "real".

Even in romantic relationships, physical contact isn't really required. There are people on this Earth who still feel romantically interested in people even if they have no desire for anything physical.

You personally might need physical closeness in your relationships, but that doesn't mean those of us who don't are kidding ourselves it just means we need different things in our lives. Online friendships are just a slightly different type of relationship. I personally value emotional closeness a lot more than the physical so I've got online friends I value far more than a lot of my physical relationships even though I also have people I've met in person who I am extremely close to. These friendships are all just as real as each other. Your personal requirements don't invalidate online friendships as a concept.

Thank you @Gimmepie for this nice debate, we can conclude that I'm insisting of involving physical and closeness to establish a "real" friendship, but in contrary you believe its not the case.

I would like to see others what do they have to say and whom think similarly like me.