Did you consider your internet friends as your real friends?

I only consider people I've met online "real friends" if either I have met them and/or we spend such a significant amount of time together. I've been going online since 1988 and have literally met many people from around the world in real life. Over the past few years, I'm very hesitant to meet any new people from the internet because it seems much more dangerous. However, I do remain in contact with various friends I already have.

I only regard the netfriends as real friends if i could learn things from them. Sometimes, they did explore my eyesight. It's quite fun to talk with them.

Once a friend is always a real friend regardless of where they come from for me.

I'm not really sure. Apart from hanging out among your real friends, they are there in time of need. As for internet friends, you can talk to them whenever you want.

Absolutely, I consider some of them my friends. I especially enjoy the fact that we can earn money together and support one another in our endeavors. Some of the greatest people, we met online and haven't seen will end up being the greatest friends based on their personality and not on their looks.

My Internet friends are my real friends. Some of them I have met in real life. Some of them I have not. But they are my real friends just like anybody else. :)

I have some very real online friends, and have been fortunate enough to have met a fair bunch of them as well. Certainly, I'm closer to some than others, but it's like that with my "real time" friends as well. In many ways, I find I am more emotionally close to some of my online friends, because there's something about the feeling of protection I get from having the computer between myself and them. I feel I can be more open about my feelings, and that in turn, we get to know each other on a far deeper emotional level than some in person friends and I can.

When I was younger and before I met my fiance I would spend a lot of time online on yahoo messenger and AOL instant messenger chatting it up with people I met online because I was bored and had nothing else to do,I had several online friends,and a few real life friends,and some of my online friends I talked to so often,that I considered them as real friends,now that I am with my fiance,we stay constantly busy planning for our wedding,and doing online sites to make money,and now the only people I talked to online are our real life friends because me and my fiance keep in touch with them through myspace,and the friends I respond to here on mylot,because I have met some really nice people on this site.

no never... never.... i never consider my internet friend as my real friends. because they may be fake. because they are invisible to us. so the reality of them cant be known. so its dangerous to consider them as your real friends.

I also have lots of internet friends, all of they came from anywhere around the world. Although I consider them friends, i don't think they are real friends. Real friends is the one whom you could talk to face to face and whom you could see in person. That is why it is called "real". No one really knows if he/she is real when you only talk on the internet. Most here in mylots are friends because most of them are helping each other and although most of them are nice, you still don't have assurance that they will be there for you as what real friends do. anyway, nice discussion jhenn23!

You can consider them friends if they are helpful like you said but most people would think the friends you hang out with or work with are your friends and for me thats not true. you can have friends from other countries and it will sometimes not be easy to visit each other but they are still your friends no matter how far they are.for me i think anyone you meet as long as they are niceand helpful to you they are your best friends

i don't really have that many friends, not on the internet nor real life, people have told me i'm pleasant but i don't really involve myself in society, if i do find friends online then yes i will consider them as real friends, even though you have absolutely no guarantee that they will consider you a friend