Poll: Internet friendship?

[Athinira]

I voted no.

While i do appreciate my online friends, I'm not attached to them. Unlike real friends, they come and go like targets on a firing range.

That doesn't mean you can't have fun with them, enjoy yourself and be sociable. But in general, i don't recommend forming attachments, especially because you've never met them in real life. I've met many people who i knew online for a long time who suddenly turned out to be childish teenagers. It's very hard to judge people online.

I should mention, of course, that there are always exceptions, and i do have a FEW online friends i do care about (for example a girl who lives 100 miles from me and which I've never met in real life but have known for 5-6 years). But it's the exception, not the rule, and i recommend others to keep it the same way until you meet someone in person.

 

[springheeljack]

I have some online friends I care deeply about
one of which happens to be my best friend I think i ever have
We have known each other for 4 years and I'm just really glad I am able to know her

 

[Zeriah]

They are absolutely important to me, but not as much as my real life friends.

 

[CopperBoom]

I do not have online friends.
I mean, I barely have real ones but I do not like playing games online so I have no use for online friends.

 

[llew]

i only add people i know IRL so that question becomes invalid

 

[Batou667]

I don't have online friends. I have real-life friends who I play with online, and I also have random guys on my Live friends list, but they're acquaintances, not friends.

 

[Knusper]

Most of them are basically just co-op buddies, but there is one who I consider a good friend, especially since I can't game with many of my other friends, since only one other is a PC gamer.

 

[tahrey]

Ever since I kind of jacked out of Usenet, IRC, P2P networks with integrated chat and rather heavily involved forums for very specific subjects (digital video processing, single-model car owners' groups...), I don't really have that many online-only "friends" any more, apart from a couple of interesting randoms on facebook (who have their own reasons for being there), and some others who I haven't met in person for a long time because they've moved away. Facebook in fact has sort of killed the idea for me, as it feels more important now to instead stay in touch with the people I actually know.

The balance of how easy it is to do that has kind of shifted. Waybackwhen it was actually easier to get on and stay up to date with my e-pals, and relatively difficult to relate to and communicate with Real People. It's kind of swapped ends since.

I mean, there's still a few people I sort-of know online, and only online, but nothing I'd really so much call friendship any more. There's 1, maybe 2 people who have managed to make the leap from my "past life" into the current socially networked world but that's it

Online gamer friends ... pfeh. They'll stab you in the back soon as you turn round.

 

[Denamic]

Anyone I talk with honestly for over 5 years will absolutely be considered an important friend.
That we've never actually met isn't even relevant.

In fact, I met my ex girlfriend through an online friendship, and my relationship with her started as an online friendship.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Seeing as I hardly contact them at all and vice versa, I don't consider them terribly important to me.

Not that I don't appreciate the notion of someone wanting me to be their online friend, but the only contact I ever have with them is the initial friend request invite and after that I never really hear from them anymore.

 

[Formica Archonis]

My best friend in the entire world I've never met in person. I've just never met anyone I like talking to as much in person.

Online friends important? Hell yes.

 

[WeAreStevo]

To me they totally are. I met most of them way back in 2004/2005 on Myspace and we've all (there's about 25-30 of us in total) have remained friends since. I've traveled to Vegas where one of them lives for a get together, and since then some have come to visit me and vice versa. Just because we met on the internet doesn't mean we aren't as close as friends of mine who live here. I mean, some of them are closer to me than people I've known forever that live down the street from me.

 

[Micalas]

I have a group of very close internet friends. Back in early 2007 I was picked up for a raid in WoW because they needed a warm body to fill the spot. It was my first raid. I had just hit the level cap a day earlier. I was specced for PvP and had no idea what hit rating was. My performance was pretty meh but they asked me to join the guild. After about half a year of raiding and learning the ropes I was eventually accepted into the folds of the guild and was promoted to an officer position. I was in charge of the guild bank.

In the summer of 2008 we planned to have an officer get-together the week of July 4th. The guild master hosted the meeting at his home in North Carolina. It was a group of about 7 people. 5 of them lived in the same state and already knew each other from before the guild but others like myself flew from Maryland and out main tank drove from Pennsylvania. We had a blast and even went out on the guildmaster's boat to go watch the fireworks.

Anyway, we had a falling out with the guild master shortly after and most of the officers the guild and formed our own. Before leaving I filled the guild bank with blacksmithing hammers (I didn't take anything.) Within our new guild we all formed some friendships and we've met some of them too. Back in May I drove up to Pennsyvania to pick up the main tank and we went to Connecticut join up with 3 of our other guild friends to go to a concert. Good times all around.

 

[Dogstile]

I value mine quite a lot. She's helped me through a lot, i've helped her, we've had our ups and downs, it's more of a friendship than i can say i have with a lot of my "real" friends.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

They are absolutely important.
I've met most of them through this site, too!
And I talk with them pretty much every day, about damn near everything.
They're always happy to listen to my shit, I'm happy to listen to theirs, they entertain and advise me, and they're just good people.
Plus I have a great deal more online friends.

And HOLY SHIT YOU'RE A GOOD ONLINE FRIEND!

*Manly hug*

OT: My opinions of online friends has changed a lot over the last couple of years. I now consider some of my best friends online as close to my heart as some of my real life friends. I like to think I have a healthy mix but almost all of the people I've met on the internet and not in reality have been from these forums

 

[JesterRaiin]

Hmmmmmmmm...
internet people are important, true. However, since they are very prone to sudden disappearances, they can't be treated exactly like someone you meet in reality, i guess.

 

[Fearzone]

It isn't a real relationship until you have met in real life. Internet-only relationships are driven mostly by the fantasy of who the other person is, not what they actually are. Even phone contact (or vent nowadays) doesn't cut it, unless there is some aspect of a physical presence. It is like the question of pornography vs. actual sex.

It wasn't until Facebook that this question started being asked. Back in the day, back even in Cyberpunk fiction, connecting through the 'net was a means to an end, and interacting solely online such that the 'net replace reality was considered an aberration.

 

[Neonbob]

They are absolutely important.
I've met most of them through this site, too!
And I talk with them pretty much every day, about damn near everything.
They're always happy to listen to my shit, I'm happy to listen to theirs, they entertain and advise me, and they're just good people.
Plus I have a great deal more online friends.

And HOLY SHIT YOU'RE A GOOD ONLINE FRIEND!

*Manly hug*

OT: My opinions of online friends has changed a lot over the last couple of years. I now consider some of my best friends online as close to my heart as some of my real life friends. I like to think I have a healthy mix but almost all of the people I've met on the internet and not in reality have been from these forums

*epic manhug of manly proportions*
AS ARE YOU, REDDY.
CAN YOU FEEL THE FUCKING LOVE?
You better

 

[Chalacachaca]

Well those who I call friends online are the same ones who I call friends irl, those who I only interact with online tend to be deleted for various reasons (they bore me, I bore them mostly).

 

[D Moness]

Seeing as i spend a weekend trying to cheer up an internet friend irl(due to reason was feeling down). I see internet friends as important as irl friends. Some internet friends i haven't seen , some i see more then my best irl friends. Everyone has a busy life so some people I see more then others.

As for the people that say internet friends come and go , so does irl friends. I am always available for people i see as friends(online and ofline).