• Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.

    Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.

    Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?

Internet Friends/Real Life Friends

Coroxn

Coroxn

An extremely equivalent exchange.
Many of you with parents who aren't 100% overjoyed at the amount of time you spend on a computer will have had the notion of 'Internet Friends' brought up. Many parents can have trouble with the idea of these Internet Friends, people who you have never physically met, being as close to you a friends who you have physically met. No matter how close a connection you can have with these people, it seems some think a physical presence is required.

What do you think? Is a physical meeting required to be classed as a true friend? Can internet friends be just as close as friends in real life? I know the results of an internet community may be a little biased, but I'm still going to ask the question.

Can internet friends be equal to real life friends?
 
This is a subject i've thought a lot about, but I don't have a clear answer.
Depends on the people, I guess.
 
I know for a fact that internet friends can be equally close as, or even closer than real-life friends. Can't see why people would think otherwise really, but I guess that comes with being unable to get in others' heads.
 
Eh. My mom just calls me a nerd and then she doesn't care. xD
I only have a few internet friends that are as close as real friends.
 
I'm going to meet some of my ~internet friends~ over New Year. :^) They are the coolest bunch of cats on the planet, and I'm really excited to finally get to hang out with them in person! They're just like long-distance ~real life~ friends to me, personally; I don't get to see them very often but we still talk a lot and we're very close!

Also, my parents don't actually care whether I have a lot of internet friends or not. Being nineteen years old and all, I can pretty much talk to whoever I like...
 
How about internet friends that you go on to meet and hang out with in real life? :D

The thing about my real-life friends is that we don't share our primary interests. We met when we were kids and then we slowly grew our own separate ways; just to start with, I'm the only one of us that would be classified as a geek. I still love them and have fun with them and go on epic trips with them, but I can't really talk to them about half of the things that I care about because those are things that they don't care about and often just don't know the first thing about.

That's where internet friends come in! Unlike my real-life friends, I met my internet friends because we shared some of the geeky interests that I have today. And that's awesome! People should never underappreciate the value of having friends you can talk about stuff you care about with, even if you can't meet them in person. Which isn't to say you can't also meet them in person, which is even better.

So the bottom line is, all friends are good and acting like certain friends aren't real because you haven't met them in person is silly. Talking to people is important, not just when it's in real life developing your real-life social skills or whatever but also simply to share thoughts and ideas with other people, and internet friends serve that purpose just as well as real-life friends if not better.
 
Butterfree said:
How about internet friends that you go on to meet and hang out with in real life? :D
Click to expand...

Once more with feeling, please!

It's much more easy to find people on the internet that you'll get along with. In a real life situation, for example school, you're in an enivornment mixed with many people of many interests. Though you may get along you may not share common interests and if people take a turn for the worst, it's difficult to walk away from that. (At least, in my experience).

Echoing what Butterfree has said, on the internet you meet people based on your common interest through putting yourself in an environment where people who share that interest of yours exist. It's a surefire topic to have a good conversation with someone. If people turn out to be sour all you need to do is not log in anymore. If you find yourself sticking around it probably means you've found some good friends. It all would just depend on the people you meet over the course of your life.
 
Coroxn said:
Many parents can have trouble with the idea of these Internet Friends, people who you have never physically met, being as close to you a friends who you have physically met.
Click to expand...
*groan* Tell me about it.
Coroxn said:
Can internet friends be equal to real life friends?
Click to expand...
Yes, yes, I believe so. I usually have come 'n' go friends, if you know what I'm talking about. I just cannot wait until I can go home from school so I can "see" my other friends, my e-friends, the ones who I haven't met in real life but I like more than my schoolfriends.

Sorry if that was a bit short.
 
I personally feel a lot closer to most of my offline friends than my online friends, but a large part of this is that I live with some of them and I see them absolutely every day. We have things in common and we do things together -- right now I'm sat in the living room with one of them watching comedy programmes from his laptop.

There is definitely something to be said for physical closeness and proximity. I've discovered that I'm actually a really touchy person. I didn't realise this before last year, but I like being able to hug my friends, or just sit next to them, or to just be near them. It's nice.

But just because I know someone offline doesn't mean that I consider them more of a friend. I have online friends who I consider to be better friends than many people I know offline. We share interests and talk about all sorts of things. Isn't that what friendship is, really?

I still don't think that online friends should be the only friends a person has, though. There's a lot to be said for actual interaction with people, being able to see their faces and hear them speak and see them do things. For me, at least, that's really quite important (but obviously with advances in technology it's pretty easy to just get on Skype or similar programs).

I think it's telling that a lot of Internet friends want to meet up in person after a while, though. There's obviously something to the idea that being physically with each other is important.
 
Some of my mum's friends got married to people they met over the internet, and I don't mean through dating sites.

Offline interaction with people is definitely important, but I only tend to stay in touch with people I can talk to online as well as off. :|b And I also tend to be much closer to people I talk to online if I've met them offline and got along well there.
 
A physical meeting is the only way to classify as a friend? Totally wrong. I met the best friends I could ever ask for here. Just because we don't see each other in real life doesn't make it any less different.

I mean, I've gotten help from my frtiends here and I confide in them more than my real life friends. Don't get me wrong, I love my real life friends and trust them for the most part...I just feel I have more of a connection with the people I meet on the internet.
 
One of my best friends is someone I have so far only talked to online, though he is coming here this summer. Friendship isn't limited by meeting someone physically, though I have people of varying degrees of liking both off and online. Nothing really decides who I connect to and who I don't - it just happens.

...My parents are far too excited about him coming here and my brother has been gleefully predicting that his arrival will show that I'm not really asexual, but they've all been pretty cool with it (other than the shipping).
 
I think Internet friends are much better than real life friends. Seeing as I am socially awkward to people in real life, I feel much more comfortable with people on the internet, seeing as no one can judge me by my looks. If anyone on the internet is, ahem, flaming, I could just steer clear of them, choosing not to read their posts about me (also by telling a mod, ;]). Real life bitches will never go away in a matter of seconds, because I don't always get to meet nice people in life.

Internet friends, like Ulqi, Myst, Ever, Mewtini, FCSnake, Aquapal, etc, will mostly be kind to me, seeing as most people are conceded and shallow about appearences, (I admit, I am too) so since people on the interweb can't see my appearence, my internet friends can see the real me, in which they become my friends. So I think internet friends are much better than real life friends. =D
 
Internet friends or Real life friends...

I don't know. I don't choose friends by their face, but by their sense of humour (What's the point of having friends if they don't understand what you're saying or just doing?)
 
RK-9 and I are totally bros. *brofist*

I'd (mostly) rather have internet friends than real life friends, because [insert Butterfree's post here]
Although friends irl have the advantage of hugs when you're down.


Aaaaaaaall the server errors
 
I find it better/easier to talk to people online than in real life (I'm a bit anxious around people, I have learned). I don't think there is much of a difference between online and offline friends, tbh. I have known my online ones for longer, oddly enough, because I have just moved to uni and find it hard to talk/connect with people...so...

I confide in my online friends more, as I know they won't be able to tell my offline friends and therefore I do not get embarrassed or look weak/needy in front of them.

Mine are all on da from when I was braver and a bit of an attention whore. D= Ah well.
 
Last edited:
Hmm. Interesting question, to say the least.

Well, when I first got sucked into forums and stuff (Probably two years ago), I couldn't find a good grip on one... So then I wandered upon Cheatsguru, where I first met my SUPA AWESOME BESTEST INTERNET BUDDIE EVA, Darkie. (...Or by his real name Mario. Have been like the BESTEST friends because of a stupid PM fight.)
I later met Aura, Aquapal, Mariel, Luis, Josh, Hero and Danny along the way at a different gaming site that I still currently Mod at, and have grown pretty much comfortable calling them my friends.

However, in reality, I'm somewhat social. I have a close-knit circle of friends, including Jaden, Hunter, Ashton, Trey, and Anna (As you can see, I'm much better with guys since I grew up with only guys, so >.<).

I view them all equally. I say that personally they can be around the same mark.
 
Twilight Sparkle said:
I'm going to meet some of my ~internet friends~ over New Year. :^) They are the coolest bunch of cats on the planet, and I'm really excited to finally get to hang out with them in person! They're just like long-distance ~real life~ friends to me, personally; I don't get to see them very often but we still talk a lot and we're very close!

Also, my parents don't actually care whether I have a lot of internet friends or not. Being nineteen years old and all, I can pretty much talk to whoever I like...
Click to expand...
exactly this
also because i'm in that group of friends at new year
NEWCASTLE YEAAAAAAAA
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom