Do you think Online friends = Friends?

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Just a simple question.

yes

Yes. Otherwise, I'd have none.

(I have seen all my online friends in real life, however.)

I wouldn't say it is a close friendship. But there was one person on xbox live that if he was on we would always play call of duty together

Yes, my best friend I met and currently only know online. I met him on Xbox live an can verify he is the 16 year old he says. Added him on Facebook and trust him with more than even my family. I plan on meeting him after I graduate and he moves from England. I have a best friend I know for normal people purposes.

Yes, they can be friends, some people would say that your online friends aren't friends because they really don't care about you, but I do care about them so is posible that they care about me too. My longest frienship until now is an online friendship, when I knew him I didn't have friends at RL, now I do have, but he is still there. I have being talking for several hours with online friends, more than with RL friends by now.

Yes, but it is much different from friends in real life. I have personally made a handful of friends online that I trust much more than many friends I've had in real life. However, online you never really get to know people in the same way as in real life since you aren't around them, and usually just see what they want you to see. Plus knowing someone purely online takes away a bit of the human factor, so it just isn't nearly the same.

Yes. I care about them, which makes them friends. I cite an example in which I became deeply concerned a friend of mine was suicidal. She was, but got better. I was happy.

Yes, online friends are friends. Granted, it's not the same as in person, but it is still a form of friendship. I am a hermit and have no personal friends, just my online friends, but that's okay with me.

Nah, I don't give a damn about online friends. I would quite happily screw them over and never see them again.

I do that to my 'real' friends too though, lol.

Yes it is better than having no friends at all I suppose. I only have one online friends and no close friends in real life
Used to it though.

Yes. In part, usually I find those that have the same interests/hobbies/hobbies/obsessions as I do. Or other things in common.
Aside from that, my real friends are also on Facebook. That is people I knew growing up. At one time, the late 80s-early 90s all my "relationships" (aside from my SCUBA instructor) were online.
I see nothing wrong with this..

Sincerely,
Matthew

Yes, online friends are awesome!

I used to think that, but I no longer do. Online friends can switch you off like a TV set if you happen to feel blue and are not entertaining enough. Online friends will construct elaborate fake personas and background stories, and you will never know who you're really dealing with.

Online friends will vanish from your life someday and leave you to try and figure out what happened. They will discard you like a video game that has lost its entertainment value. You'll have no reliable way of contacting them, just a disposable email address or IM client account. That is not friendship. You might as well be an NPC character in an MMO to them.

And that's exactly why online "friendships" are so appealing. You can always keep a safe distance. Nothing can ever go wrong. You can tell them your darkest secrets and rest assured that they won't gossip to your other friends or your family members.

You will never be asked to lend someone money, or to help carry a piece of heavy furniture. That's what friends do, not online "friends". Online "friends" never show up unannounced and never crash on your couch. You are always in complete control of the situation. If your online "friends" are being difficult, you can simply switch them off like a household appliance.

The internet turns us all into crappy pseudo-friends like that, and we pretend to like it that way. Until we need a shoulder to cry on and realize that we don't have a single friend on the entire planet.

I believe online friends are real friends, yes.

That being said, I once had an online "friend" just up and tell me one day that we were just online friends. It didn't really mean anything. We weren't actually friends in real life. Then wondered why I cut all connections. Umm.