"internet friends"

Shaissa

Shaissa

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So kind of a curious question

how do you all feel about "internet friends"?

Do you see them as your real friends?

or a separate life from you "actual life"?

For me, I see most of my internet friends as my actual friends, sure I might never meet them, but I feel that I can be "me" more than at my job, or around other people.

So how do you feel about "internet friends"?
 
I see internet friends, as friends in real life. Just as you said, I might never meet them, but they still count as friends.

That's exactly how long distance relationships work, no? Except, in life, they eventually meet.

PSN and our love for gaming here is what connects us all. So, in a way, I've already met you all, thanks to PSN :edd:
 
Hayabusa said:
I see internet friends, as friends in real life. Just as you said, I might never meet them, but they still count as friends.

That's exactly how long distance relationships work, no? Except, in life, they eventually meet.

PSN and our love for gaming here is what connects us all. So, in a way, I've already met you all, thanks to PSN :edd:
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This :mokken: Especially your last sentence hehe. I havent met any of you irl but I met some wonderful people through this forum.

I love playing MP games with you more than playing with most of irl friends haha.
You guys are awesome thats why Im sticking to this forum even though FF is death to me lol.
 
Yeah I would say a select few I would class as real friends even though I don't speak to them as often as I'd like.

I think actually speak to said online friends more often then I do some of my friends who live near me. XD

It doesn't really matter where I've met people anymore.

If I take the time to speak to them via internet, phone, in person, then i class them as my friends and won't divide them into groups, which may/may not make certain types of friendships seem less/more important than others. :-)

I won't go naming names, but if I take the time to speak to you every now and then, it means I do class you as a friend and I want to keep contact, even if life does get a little crazy and it takes a while for me to reply/pop in to say a quick hello. :-)
 
When I actually find someone I get along with on the net (it seems to be rare these days) then I count them as a good friend and they will be very important to me. I've had internet friends that mean just as much to me as real life friends and i even met my beautiful BF online too (obviously he means more to me than anything) so yeah I count people online as real friends. I've even been lucky enough to meet a couple of you in person too! I think I'm really lucky because i live on the other side of the world to nearly everyone on this site but still got to meet my favourite people haha.
 
Of course! Almost (Almost :ahmed: ) all of you guys I consider good friends of mine. I actually like you guys more than my friends that live around me. Just because we've not met face to face, doesn't mean I don't care about you or hold you in lower regard than those I do see face to face.

I often think that we all ended up on this forum for a reason. Those of us that stick around will become friends. Somebody said that this forum has pretty much become a hang out spot, which I believe to be true.

You guys are my friends. That's all that matters. Just like with people we see face to face, we have arguments, we get mad at each other, we go through all the ups and downs, but in the end, we're all still here, together. As friends. That's not gonna change on my part.

:)
 
meetup.png


friends are friends!!!!!!! all of these people are people I've known for a while now but we all met up at PAX East and it was tons of fun (one or two people in this picture I didn't actually know, though, and a few others couldn't make it for the group picture). Internet or real life, it all ends up about the same. Ribbit.
 
I think as social media and online connections have grown over the years, so the view about "internet friends" has changed. I have always had online friends since I was in my early teens. Back then people scoffed at having online friends, especially parents and older folk who didn't believe in all that internet voodoo. I was advised to not trust people I met online, that they weren't real friends and were probably all paedophiles in disguise. To be honest I've gotten into more trouble with people I met IRL than anyone I've ever met off the internet. When you live in a small town and have different interests or follow a specific lifestyle or subculture it is sometimes really difficult to meet people who are like you irl...so yes I consider people I chat to online as valid a friend as a person I know and meet irl.
I have many friends who I have never met or only met once, and to me it doesn't make a difference, as I'm closer to them than people I see every week.
Online friendships and dating seems to be a lot more accepted nowadays than it was 10 years ago. The purists may bleat about social media and online connections having an adverse affect on our "real-life relationships" but how is the internet not part of real life? In today's world the internet pretty much IS life for most people who own a smartphone, laptop, gaming console or PC. To claim that connections made online are somehow not part of real life is to pretend that every time you go online you are entering a fantasy world that doesn't exist and whatever you say or do makes has no repercussions (sounds like a troll, doesn't it?) This view only helps to break down your social skills, as you consider people online to not be "real", or put on fake personas. Generally these people are as hopeless as real life as they are at the internet, imo.
 
I have friends who only live a few miles from me I met over the Internet who I've never met, but I also have friends that live half the country away that I have met. Friends are friends, I had a friend who I knew over the Internet for years but I met him in real life not too long ago. In a few days I'll be meeting someone else I met purely over the Internet who I've never met.

I personally think if you're comfortable with travelling and financial costs then you can treat an entire radius of miles as a single building with loads of outdoor corridors. In England, the dearest train-fare I've seen has costed a little more than £100 for a return ticket but I know that's not the limit, all someone would need to do (and I know it's easier said than done) is save up their money and they can easily see them. And as I said, if you treat the country like a big house with a load of out-door corridors and rooms, you'll feel like you're only going to see your flatmate and with trains you don't even have to put as much physical effort to see them.

I have friends that live in the United States and honestly I have no idea how I would go about visiting friends there, so maybe for the time being until I know how I would visit them, they would truly separate as online friends, but I see the country I live in as local and I've been like that ever since I learnt how to independently travel, it's a subconscious thing. It's all about how you perceive things in my opinion.
 
I generally consider online friends to be real, true friends. When you like somebody, you like them. I mean, why does the medium in which you met them with matter? Why should we consider those people we befriend online as "weird"? Sure, there has been cases of social media going wrong and such, but what about the good cases? The lonely people who've met their partners over the web and found happiness? The people who've been on the brink, only to be brought back from the edge by friends they've never met?

Perhaps I'm going over the top in saying this, but can't an online friendship be closer? You talk to these people without them knowing your face, your appearance. They talk to you because of who YOU are- your attitude, intelligence and personality. Obviously, nothing can beat eye contact and face time-but with skype and other such applications that barrier is slowly disappearing. The fact that they base their connection with you over something that's not appearance is brilliant in a world that slowly becomes shallower.

Of course, physical appearance does eventually come into account, but it doesn't have to be present from the get-go.

Anyway, I'd like to think that I have many friends on this site who know me- even if just a little. Sure, I don't skype, facebook or call any of you, but I'd still consider many of the members here friends: The others are just people I haven't got a chance to know yet.

If they consider me the same... Well, can't do much about that.
 
but I see the country I live in as local and I've been like that ever since I learnt how to independently travel, it's a subconscious thing. It's all about how you perceive things in my opinion.
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Very true! I'm only just getting into the gist of travelling myself. Anything can be done with the right amount of effort.
 
Shoor i see them as real friends. Just because i cant quickly go round to see them whenever i want doesnt make no difference to me. Ive know many people though the internet who are far better people than ones ive known in real life. Spose that goes without sayin, we all know a dick or 5.
Despite being big FF geeks the few people i have met from this site have been pretty ok folks.
 
Kandy-Sugar said:
Yeah I would say a select few I would class as real friends even though I don't speak to them as often as I'd like.

I think actually speak to said online friends more often then I do some of my friends who live near me. XD

It doesn't really matter where I've met people anymore.

If I take the time to speak to them via internet, phone, in person, then i class them as my friends and won't divide them into groups, which may/may not make certain types of friendships seem less/more important than others. :-)

I won't go naming names, but if I take the time to speak to you every now and then, it means I do class you as a friend and I want to keep contact, even if life does get a little crazy and it takes a while for me to reply/pop in to say a quick hello. :-)
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I have to say my comment is very similar, especially the first part since I really dont talk to them alot as much as i would like. I do consider them my friends and I like them more than most of my real friends. I have alot of friends thats online everytime I am but even though we dont talk Every now and again i might send them a message just to check up on them and see how their doing. I have only 2 best friends thats actually here with me and 7 best friends thats online and I dont treat them any different than I do the 2 friends that are here with me in person.
 
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