Online friends are they just as good as the real life friends?

Here's a best answer from yahoo answer( hearbeat ) would really help a lot on view on how we do value online friends.. "Online friends are wonderful and precious ... BUT ... you absolutely must cultivate real-life friendships too. It is most unhealthy to spend 12 hours a day talking to people you've never met before if you have no-one to connect with once you switch off the computer. That is way, way out of balance. Socialising online is not the same as socialising in real life. There are so many frustrating limitations. You cannot go out together and share those kind of experiences, you cannot express physical affection, you cannot share in one another's lives the way you can with real life friends. I have online friends who mean the world to me, we share as much as is humanly possible within the limitations that cyberspace offers. However, although online socialisation can augment ( very beautifully!) real life friendship, it cannot replace it. If this is about you, you really, really need to acknowledge the void in your real life and the aching loneliness that you feel. And you need to address it. Limit your computer time, and take steps to purposefully expand your social network in real life. Real life friends won't come to you while you're stuck on the computer!! You do need to step out a bit and connect with people in your own community."

I have made the most wonderful friends on line. I have met very few, and it was an awesome experience. But, we have all become quite close, and it is a wonderful experience. You can get close and share more, than you can sometimes with people around. But, you must be careful in relationships, as all of us know, one may not be whome they say they are on line.

I think there's a slight difference but online friends are still as important as true friends. Only the nature of it is different. We do meet real friends but sometimes too personal problems, we can relate to online friends better at times.

Hi stan, well I think so. U see, u have to be really lucky to get a good real life friend who will stand by u thru thick and thin, and is never jealous of u, and is willing to extend a helping hand at all times. Even if u r that good a friend, ur friend may fall short of ur expectations. We are all humans, and we have our own set of expectations, at times unreasonable, but they are there nevertheless. And when a friend doesnt measure up to our expectation, we do crib, and may be fight. Whatever, friendships break, and they cause pain. U tell a friend a secret, it may be out, and u fight with the friend, the end. Mind u, u might have done something similar to another friend, and ur friend might have unwittingly revealed ur secret. But still it might break. Similarly, u need some monies urgently, ur friend doesnt have guts to ask his father, or his parents refuse to give him some, and u take it out on ur friend, why didnt he rob his parent. In real life, we sure develop expectations. We use a friend's shoulders to cry our woes, and when the friend asks us any favor, we wonder is he asking because I lightened my burden on him? So more often than not, true friendships in real life are rare. In the long run, there is a lot of grumbling, may be not in front, but always behind. At least, that is what I c around me. But on net, u dont really know the other person and therefore, there are no such demands from either side. U can tell ur woes, and these people will read it like a story and sympathize with u, understanding u r wronged. And they will offer advice. More often than not, u get a wider section of society advising u. And therefore, each one brings in his or her own experience to the table. I've learnt a lot here - and I've just been here for about 3 months. So - yes, online friends are better than real life friends, as far as I am concerned. But u may be lucky. U might have a better set of friends surrounding u. Cheers!

People tend to know more people through internet. This can expand our scope to know different people and different things. Since it could save more time than to make friends in real life. More and more people like this kind of social activity. However online friends are not the real friends in our life. We can not compare them to our real friends in the life. When we are in the real trouble, it is hard to find the online friends to help us with the trouble, even if we think we have a long and strong relationship with them. Distance is the largest obstacle between the online friends and us. In fact most of us who are making online friedns are trying to find someone to chat and talk when we have nothing important to do. Few of us could treat them seriously. Of course. I can not deny some people could find the best friends online. I think most of online friends in this society are not necessary. People should find the real friends in the life. The real people can help us construct our social network from which we can benefit in the life. Anyway I prefer the real friends over the online friends.

I believe that through my online friends i say what i really feel, A true conversation is one where you say what you wanna say. sometimes they are better that real life friends, but i do regard online friends as Real Online Friends.

Not the case. I really believe that, seeing someone face to face is far more beneficial when it comes to friendships and peer bonding, rather than people you dont know over the internet. It might not last long on the internet, and you may never actually see that persona ever. If you think about it, it doesnt really constitue a full friendship....

I have some great online friends and they mean a lot to me, but they can't replace real life friends. My real life friends and I talk, laugh, joke and do things together, my online friends and I "only" communicate via emails and chat. The conversations with my online friends mean a lot to me, we help and support eachother and share a lot of things, but written communication isn't enough for me, and that is why it is important to me to have real life friends as well as online friends. Some of my online friends have become close friends in real life, and I would like to meet other online friends in the future

I wouldn't really know because I don't really have any friends that I only talk to online and I've never really seen before or hung out with before in real life. I think that real life friends are better because you can go out and do things fun like go to a concert or hang out or something like that.

I have few friends online and real friends is few too. As I could not have many friends or best friends as i always left them every time my family transfer from another places every 5 years. Online friendship appears good to busy people who could not even make friends in real life but this kind of friendship for me is superficial compare to real friendship in real life. As in online friendship people could pretend or lies even making themselves appear different from their description of their own personality.

I have online friends and 'real' friends and I don't think having online friends means you don't have real ones. I do think its unhealthy if you are spending your entire life on the computer and not ever getting out. But I think online friends can become 'proper' friends too. I met my husband online, in a group we were both in. We went from talking on the group to emailing privately over a long time and then I finally went to meet him (took my Dad with me, just in case...lol...as I actually traveled from England to America to meet him)We now live in America and have been married 5 years.

I think both are vary useful.It may happen that online friends may contribute more To your life. If your real life friends live near by than you can meet many times a week. If they stay away,it is difficult to see them,to spend time. Time is much than money. You can not create a second which is gone! But a Doctor may cure Cancer! I think,Internet has helped a lot in one's life. It is not internet because of it people are becoming less social,but it is our Fast life! DO NOT SPEND TIME MAKE BEST USE OF TIME. Again I have to say make best use of time,internet,real friends & online friends.

Online friends are a F*****G joke. It is just an excuse to have addys for Myspace and Facebook. Seriously people go through your friends list on these websites and see who you actually are "real friends" with. I can almost be positive that 80% are people you don't really like or never really talked to or just added because they knew someone you knew. In my opinion Cyber friends are not really friends.

Nice topic :) I m on orkut. And i have made 2 different profiles. One for the frinds I know ... "real ones" and the other for online friends ... err ... in your terms -- "virtual friends". Making virtual friends is good, but I personally believe that internet is not a place to trust people. Ok I may be wrong but thats how I think ;). That doesn't mean that they are not my friends ... err... it is just a matter of 'trust'. [Trust ... Oh yeah ... new topic, will post it soon ..... hahaha]

I think we need online friends because we don't have many intimate friendships any more. People don't treat each other with the kind of respect that a really good friendship inspires, so that you can't tell secrets or talk things out without running the risk of being laughed at (maybe behind your back) or being the object of gossip. I have good online friends and they're just as real as the people I meet every day, you know. :) I just don't trust people in real life and I think that's the bottom line. The internet has taken the place of good, trusting relationships we used to have.

I have made some new friends online, one of which has been an online friend now for about 7 years. That being said, I kind of feel like having the internet has made me more of a homebody. When I was a kid, you had to talk to your friends on a phone attached to the wall (a landline) or face to face. There were no cell phones and computers weren't the quick communication machines they are today. In fact, I didn't start using a computer on a regular basis until about 8 years ago, or less and the computer my parents had was slow, dial-up and didn't have any graphics. Instant messaging was not even imagined yet and, if I recall, email wasn't around either but, I could be wrong about that. Now that I am on a computer every day, I can be in touch with anyone else who has a computer every day at nearly any time of the day. However, there are still people who aren't really computer savvy and I think that my communication with them tends to be less frequent as those whom I talk to online.

So may think so and others may not in the matter of are online friends as good as real life friends. Some online friends are better friend that your real friends and of course there is always that scare of what if this online friend is not what they appear to be but I guess in the same it can be like that with your real life friends. I love my real life friends but I also really enjoy my online friends they are just as good friends as my own real life friends. What I think is nice as a extra added bonus with online friends in you don't have to worry about them showing at your door when you just want family time. My awesome answers to your awesome questions are: we don't need online friends but they are just as good as real friends even if you never see them in real life.(Sometime better). I don't think people are become less social I just think we are expanding our friendships by opening ourselves to new people and other regions. I like making online friends how about you...it sounds like you don't like making online friends as much? Which do you prefer?

No, I don't think that people being less social toward real life people the more online friends they get, I think they are ALREADY less social to begin with and that's why they look for online friends instead of real ones. Sometimes it's just easier to get those. In my opinion- online friends are good for listening to stuff you usually won't tell a real life friend. For example- you wouldn't tell someone in real life that you're 'in love' with someone he knows because it might leak out. But of course- if you want it to leak out... well, that's another story! XD If you're thinking about gf/bf online relationship, I can tell from my own experience that it can work- but takes a lot of effort and at the end you'll have to meet the other side! Anyways, I like my online relationships as they are right now.