"Internet Friends"

Post Reply New Topic

Growing up in the 90s and early 00s as a teen my mom was often very rude about what she termed "vapor friends" or friends I had not met IRL. How do you guys feel about these?

I find some people I've never met in real life, I'm closer to than those I see daily.

People sometimes underestimate online friendships. You can often form as close a bond with an Internet friend as you can with a real-life friend.

Well in that time the internet was only a new thing and yeah.

Nowadays attitudes are generally much better and most people might have plenty of online friends they have never met (but know they are real because of online games with voices or websites like skype and stuff like that)...

Honestly, in my personal opinion i think online friends IS okay, but believe you should also have at least some real life friends.

A balance...

I think that making friends on the internet can be a good thing if you do it right. It seems to be easier than talking to someone face-to-face. On the internet, you won't be judged because of how you look or act. That's a good thing. Just be sure to interact with people around you in the real world as well.

I appreciate the relationships I've formed with people online, but I also take them for what they are—relationships on the internet. I don't view them as being on the same level as ones I've formed in real life even though I've known some of the people for awhile (2-4 years for most of them). I take and leave things/people online as they suit me whereas you can't really do that IRL and expect the person to still be there.

In my experience the internet is not a good place to make friends, because one way or another people tend to get a wrong impression of me. Then I feel like they expect me to be someone that I'm not.

Then it's too weird to talk to someone on the phone, and have them saying how I'm different than they expected.

Lol. All my friends except one are from the Internet. I have loads of aquaintences though so I can interact just fine. To make friends IRL though is pretty much impossible for me. The one friend I have is pretty much in my life because he knows too much about me and there is no choice about it.

I've posted on forums for over 10 years and made a lot of internet friends. I've even met a few in person over the years. My only problem is that I have trouble forming more of a relationship with them beyond talking about our common interest, and sometimes lose touch with them when we don't talk about that common interest any more. Not that different from people I made friends with in person over a common interest... there are just more of them on the internet.

Internet friends are never real friends, they simply can't be like the friends in flesh - unless you meet them later in flesh.

Your online projection is always not accurate, no matter how honest you are. For example, I sound talkative online, while in real life I am not.

I just call them online acquaintances, and so you should, otherwise you will be disappointed, they're often temporary.

Your mom was right.

Ultimately, people you interact with online are total strangers. It rarely happens that you meet them IRL or even over something like Skype. I have some extremely interesting conversations here on WP, where the members tend to be highly intelligent and insightful, but as lovely as they are (or seem to be) it's unrealistic to call them friends.

Well, it is true that there can be small changes of the behaviour pattern.

My sister in law has been married to her internet friend for years. They started off in different countries. Then she moved to his, now he's moved here to the US. They're very happy. If you met them, you couldn't imagine either of them married to anyone else.

I know another couple from different countries who got married after years of internet friendship then dating.

I've had real life friends who moved away and became internet friends and vice versa.

But it's hard for an older generation to accept that. It took me a looong time to accept that internet friends weren't creepy.

The only friends I have are my Internet friends who share my special interest. I only had 2 real life friends in my life and they both broke it off with me and treated me very poorly.

I've had a very interesting relationship with a woman I've known only online for a decade. For the better part of a year, we spoke on the phone several hours a day. Suffice to say, we got very close, but life and certain other circumstances have kept us from ever meeting in person, thus far.

Having said that, I still agree with many of the sentiments expressed that online friendships just aren't the same as real life ones. Despite the fact I've gotten on well with my internet friend over the phone, it's possible that if we ever meet in person that we find we've got no chemistry at all.