Internet Friends

[Kura]

Um.. I decided to start a new topic for OC~ X3;;

Internet friends.. are they really considered friends? ._. What makes them so different that some people don't refer to them as friends?
Can you really fall in love over the internet? Especially if you've never even seen the other person before?

Voice your opinions~

I know a supposed internet friend of mine was debating with me (and quite a few others) over internet friendship. This "friend" kept telling me that internet friends aren't your true friends.. yet I love some of my OL friends very much~ There are a few OL friends I'd take a bullet for.. and there are a few who care more about me over the internet, than many do IRL~

So what do you think about Internet relationships?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Well, I probably could write a huge article over my opinion, but I am not. I am going to be brief and to the direct point!

I believe that you can be very close to an internet friend if you want to be close to them. There should always be limits as you know. I am in a situation in which, I don't have many friend offline. So like my best friend, Paul, I treat him just like a real friend even though I can't see him.

You just have to do and feel the way you want in this situation. There are two sides, and I don't personally believe you could say which one of right or not.

 

[Kura]

Well, I probably could write a huge article over my opinion, but I am not. I am going to be brief and to the direct point!

I believe that you can be very close to an internet friend if you want to be close to them. There should always be limits as you know. I am in a situation in which, I don't have many friend offline. So like my best friend, Paul, I treat him just like a real friend even though I can't see him.

You just have to do and feel the way you want in this situation. There are two sides, and I don't personally believe you could say which one of right or not.

Yeah, I feel the same. I do have quite a few real life friends.. but I think my bestest friend is an online one. It's just that, during a time, certain circumstances arose, and he really was the only one there for me, and the only one who was concerned or seemed to care~
I have a best friend in real life, too~ But I see both these two friends as equally both my best friends~ <3

I could write a book on my opinion, too~ And I could rant on and on about what one person said to me and how they tried to change my entire outlook on friends just because he wanted me to back him up and he wanted to be right all the time >>; He basically thought that only his opinion mattered, and would put others down just to prove that he was right.
(long story~)

 

[doesn't matter]

Well I myself used to believe that there was no such things as internet friends, that it wasn't possible.

But that was before I started talking more to people I didn't know on the net.

And, after an argument with one that I got along really well with, I learnt that these relationships do exist .... that you can have friends. Because as long as you can transmit your emotions, whether it be via smilie (:P), words, or something else, you can always have a bond with somebody.

A bond that is real cause emotions are there.

....

However, I try to downsize the amount of people I talk to on the net who I see everyday, cause it bugs me that you could talk to them on the net heaps, but when you see them you might not even mutter out a hello. But I think that's just petty of me.

 

[MegaDitto]

A difference between internet friends and real friends is that internet friends won't make as much of a impact in your life as a real life friend could.

They are still friends either way. Just different ways of communication.

 

[Kura]

A difference between internet friends and real friends is that internet friends won't make as much of a impact in your life as a real life friend could.

They are still friends either way. Just different ways of communication.

Not necessarily. I take to heart what my closest internet friends say to me.
I have about 3 internet friends whom I trust just as much as IRL friends (if not more in come cases)
I've known them for 2-3 years, now~ And I feel that I'm very close to them.

They impact me a lot more than a lot of my real life friends do, because we share experiences and advice daily. Whether it be through emails, MSN, or even letters in the mail.

So I wouldn't think there'd be a difference there, but that's just my opinion~
And yeah, it is different ways of communication~ I guess I just see words the same way as speech. This is probably because I believe that, either way, these words are thoughts that are generated by the other person. No matter which way they express these thoughts, it still reflects through them.

 

[Kayleigh]

I definitely believe that (most) of the good friendships that you make online are real--I finally had a chance to meet a wonderful friend of mine from England, who came to visit me with her family this year. We had talked over the internet (as well as on the phone) for nearly 4 years, but I still didn't know what to expect when I finally got to meet her.

It turned out, she was exactly the same as she was online in real life, and we had so much fun together! =3 We never ran out of things to talk about, had a great time doing things that we both loved, such as drawing, and found out that we were just perfect friends. Even though we live really far away from each other, I still feel closer to her than all my real life friends--not counting family members, of course.

Sometimes it's nicer to have some good online friends, because that way you can get to know someone for who they really are. (As long as you're not talking to some pedophile. O_o But what I mean is people that you know you can trust.) You can easily find people that share the same interests as you, etc. (Which I definitely have trouble with in real life. XD There aren't many teens my age who still like Pokémon around here...) I'm not saying that I don't enjoy spending time with my real life friends--it's just that I appreciate the ones I have online just as much. Even if I haven't met them, I've known them long enough to get to know them personally, and find out about their lives and everything.

So, I believe--and know from experience--that if you get to know someone well enough online, and if you really enjoy talking to that person, then you can call them your true friend. <3 That's just what I think.

 

[Sylphiel]

A difference between internet friends and real friends is that internet friends won't make as much of a impact in your life as a real life friend could.

That would vary from person to person, though. There's someone I originally met online (I've since met him in person several times, though) with whom it would be a complete lie to say he hasn't had some sort of impact on me; he's the one that made me feel generally happier about myself, and made me feel like I had more worth than before.

Anyways, I think the idea that internet friends aren't "real friends" might come from the fact that on the internet it's easier than normal to spoof who you are; it's easy for people to feign emotions, personalities, and even looks. That's my guess, anyways. Kinda reminds me of the time my mom railed against me a few years ago and told me that "you may think you're talking to other people, but you're not, you're actually talking to computers!"

(Though I heard nothing more about that from her when she saw, a few weeks later, the cards and even cookies that I'd received from various people I'd met over the internet, heh.)

My line of thought is that a friend is a friend. As long as I feel I can trust them, then just because I have to talk to them through media such as email, instant messages, and whatnot, that doesn't make them any less worthy of a "friend" status in my eyes.

 

[Chikara]

If I wanted, I could write for hours on how stupid you have to be to subject yourself to that. I have a friend who has a 'relationship' with a guy who dosnt even think of her as a girlfriend. SHE is still convinced that its a relationship though.

And when we became well...not friends, ill say... it was automaticly my fault for some strange and distorted reason...even though I didnt do anything...oh well, I just think its stupid. Thats my opinion.

 

[Kura]

If I wanted, I could write for hours on how stupid you have to be to subject yourself to that. I have a friend who has a 'relationship' with a guy who dosnt even think of her as a girlfriend. SHE is still convinced that its a relationship though.

And when we became well...not friends, ill say... it was automaticly my fault for some strange and distorted reason...even though I didnt do anything...oh well, I just think its stupid. Thats my opinion.

Subject yourself to what? Internet friends?

You know people could lie in real life about relationships, too~
There are cheaters, and twotimes everywhere out there.
Even in real life that situation could be possible. So it's just something that can occur online.

There are people who think they know someone so well IRL, and that they know that this other person loves them. Then they find out that they've been leaving a double life. Or have another two girlfriends~ etc~

You can't just say that so vaguely~

 

[Chikara]

Naw, I was talking about relationships, I misunderstood the thred, sorry about that ^^'

But I wasnt trying to, I just said I dont think its extremely smart for a person to start a relationship online. Cause when they dont work out, then that person will probibly blame someone elce. Just what I think though..

 

[Kura]

Naw, I was talking about relationships, I misunderstood the thred, sorry about that ^^'

But I wasnt trying to, I just said I dont think its extremely smart for a person to start a relationship online. Cause when they dont work out, then that person will probibly blame someone elce. Just what I think though..

Ah~ it's okay~

:3 And fair enough~
X3 Everyone's entitled to their own opinion~ I was just curious to know what others think about online relationships (friends or more than friends) X3;;~

 

[Drifblim]

It's different between sorts of people. I don't have that many friends in the real world; in fact, if I didn't have a job, nobody would care less, but now that I work frequently at a store I'm able to chat up all of the customers regardless of their age or heritage about their lives, world events, or personal opinions of the present. Of course, many of them are seniors.

Online, I have a fair few. The people here are some of them. Personally I've always considered them tantamount to anyone I know in real life.

 

[Dawson]

To me, online friends rank equally as real life friends in my life. In fact, my most trusted friends are ones I've met online.

The big negative of online friendships to me though is that friendships take longer to build online than in real life. I think it's a mix of the fact that I don't trust people easily and when you can't see the person you're talking to, it's very easily for them to lie and, thus, I tend to be a lot more defensive at first. As well as that, with people online, all you can do is talk. You can't build bonds through activities and other stuff you can do IRL so you have to rely solely on talking.

On the plus side, you'll never lose your online friends. No matter where you move to in the world, as long as you have access to the internet, you'll always have contact with your online friends. The same can't be said for friends in real life. I just wish I could get online more to chat with my online friends ._.

As for falling in love on the internet, you can only answer that when you've actually experienced first hand. So I say "yes" ;)

 

[Cherrim]

Even though I tend to split my friends into categories like "online" friends and "IRL" or "offline" friends, I consider them perfectly equal.

For example, I've known Andy (Arcanine) for years now and, though we've never met, I still consider him one of my best friends. Same goes for a lot of the peropls I've met online, actually, since I've been through a lot with them (virtual or not) and we've built up a good friendship over the course of time. Whether I can physically see or touch them is a moot point; that friendship is still there. I still laugh out loud when I talk to them through MSN, I worry about them when they're going through something tough, and I know I can talk to them about anything since they're there for me--it shouldn't matter whether or not I can see them daily in real life.

I've always hated labelling people as "best friends" and whatnot, since that's basically favouritism and I hate that. But if I really had to choose one person to get that title, that person would be one of my online friends. I...can't talk to her anymore, but she's still my best friend regardless; recently when she came back from a rather long absence, we were basically able to pick up talking right where we'd left off. It was as if she hadn't been gone at all...and you know what? That's exactly what happened with one of my "offline" friends. She was more or less the best friend type before I had to move, and even once I had moved, whenever we visited each other after that (once a year), it's the same thing. It's like neither of us were separated at all. So...if it's like that for IRL friends AND online friends, there really isn't too much of a difference, is there?

People have said that it's not the same because you can't see the person. Sure, that can often make it a lot harder to forge bonds, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. It's harder to trust people on the internet, yes, but I don't see it as a major barrier. I trust a lot of my friends and even if they did turn out to be not who they said they were (quite a few now-close friends were like that a few years back), there's often a fair amount of their true personality that was evident before, so it's not that much of a set back all the time. (I've been talking with some people...6 or 7 years now? Usually when you know someone that long, you find out that the person they claimed to be when you first "met" them isn't how they really are...like a lot of people will fake their age, location, or even gender.)

Um...I think I may just be rambling now, but this kind of sparked my reply in the first place:

On the plus side, you'll never lose your online friends. No matter where you move to in the world, as long as you have access to the internet, you'll always have contact with your online friends. The same can't be said for friends in real life. I just wish I could get online more to chat with my online friends ._.

That's incredibly true. When I moved here from Nova Scotia about five years ago, if it weren't for the internet friends that "moved" with me, I'm not sure how well off I'd be, or even if I'd be here at all. (I hated it here when I moved. o_o;) But since there was some sense of normalcy in a new place, even if it was just talking to people I knew online, it really, really helped.

Won't even go into online relationships right now, though. =x

 

[mistywishmaker]

I think that on the internet, people aren't afraid to show their real personalities, and that's when people with the same interests get together and become what you call "online friends." I've had some email pals and forum members become close friends, and I've never even seen them. <3

 

[Eureka1]

i met my girlfriend on the internet :P just talked for about 4 months then i felt odd <_< so i told her and she said the same so i was like woo

7 months together now ^_^

shame she lives 60 miles away or i'd see her a lot more often but i love her..

i dont think that you could love someone you know well tbh :P friends wise though shes my best and i came to know her on the internet so internet friends are great

i have about 20 decent internet friends from denmark, holland, australia, america, china and even some from japan

^_____________________________________^

also when i leave school i think ill still communicate with my friends over the internet so would they become internet friends?

 

[Ho-Oh]

I think if they make you laugh, and make you smile they still can be friends. Im happy just talking to them and each day I look forward to talking to them. It's not like I could go to the shops and go talk to them..even if they did live in the same city. They are better friends than real life ones. But I wouldn't go all out to meet them.

<3 simpsonqueen

 

[-:Buro-kun Tsubasa:-]

Net friends are harder to fall out with. They are easier to make aswell.

 

[Yoko-Chan]

You cannot fall inlove with a person you never have seen before, that makes no sense at all.
I got ALOT of friends over the internet, It's nice because I don't have so much friends in the real life.