Internet And "real Life" Friends

Seeing as I've had close Internet friends for ages now, I was thinking about this quite alot. Why do people see having online friends as so bad? Especially if you balance the internet and real life, what is so bad about it?

I find that my Internet friends can help me through some problems my real life friends can't because they have never experienced what I'm going through or just give useless advice. My mum asks "Why waste your life on a chat room or forum talking to people you've never met?" My answer to this: Friends are friends.

True, not everyone online you talk to can be trusted, it's your choice/risk to meet and talk to people online, but still. Heck, the fact that we are even here in these forums is because we wanted to talk and get to know people who share a similar interest in Pokemon, as well as many other things. Also, an online friend of mine left one day saying we were "avoiding reality" - I don't see what's so bad about it, as long as you're balanced (I'm semi-balanced, but definitely not anti-social).

I'd like to hear your opinions on this.

The biggest reason why many people don't trust internet friends is that it's so easy to lie online!. You may be lucky and meet a few good people on the net but the majority of the online relationships (including friendship and others) are based on lies. And it's hard to spot who's lying and about what, unless you meet in real life.

Meeting people online is actually an interesting process, because the people you meet are from all over the world instead of being across your street! But there are all kinds of people out there - some friendly, some sulky, some dangerous, etc. and you need to be prepared for their reactions if you want to chat with them.

Personally I don't mind meeting new people online but I take care not to drop my guard and do something silly. For example, some idiot might be in an idiotic mood and comes onto sites like omegle.com where strangers chat. This idiot may dish out his anger by trolling, which irritates the other guy. But responding back in the same way is of little use and may even lead to something unsatisfactory. That's why online chats need to be taken care of carefully. Making new friends is awesome, but it should be done with care

ok it depends on what do you call a "friend"
a real friend, either on internet or in real life, is a "person" that has a deep knowledge about us.
An identity that answer about technical problems is not a friend, is a partner, a colleague, anything but never a friend.

Some of my friends are online, i have online friendship with them. I have some distant firends whom i meet online only, i keep a good relation with them too.

there is a site to help the location/details of your online friends ,
, without their knowledge

www.chatrack.frihost.net

this will help to see if your friend is lying you about his location

When I was in school, I had much more online friends which I've never seen, only in pictures and etc. But with time I just started to be not as active online as I used to be, due to things in real life, like girlfriend, job, studies and it just lacks time to get in contact, sometimes I just chat with several of online friends, like whats up, how are things and stuff, nothing more.

I guess online friends are good as you can get more knowledge about different regions from different countries.

While I do understand where people come from on this matter, I do not view this as being "pathetic" or a problem, just because you have *online friends*. As long as you can draw the line on where they stand to you, as people, and that real life is more important than online.

But, I pose a question for everyone else. In the probability you meet someone online, and become friends, is it still considered "online" if they live in the SAME town as you? They went to the same high school? I would like to know how others view this scenario.

Online friends vs. Real life friends...so long as you know the difference you're good. And, online friends can (sometimes) become real life friends...

I dislike people who are always like "Oh I have over a thousand friends on MYSPACE!" All though I know a lot of people who use Social networking to communicate with real friends. I think people should spend more time looking for friends in real life. The only online friends I have are you guys here at Trap.

I don't say I have many friends online since I am a beginner online and not all of my friends online are true and trusted since
as the author said "its easy to lie online" Internet today has reported a lot of crimes and the best crime is Identity Theft yes.. well I experience this sometimes way back in the past there is a guy who get some of my pictures in my facebook and hey he uses a different name but the picture is me? wow huh? its very easy to copy and paste a picture also to invent a name

@Zagubadu why you hate them? hey so we are friends online now? XD I agree with you that
finding and focusing in real life friends is a nice way but sometimes online friends are okey too in fact not
all users now are lie

i have several internet friends over the years ,some we have shared many heartaches and marriages and divorces and new babies ,shared the good and the bad .
some I've even driven to actually visit them .

Internet friends or off line friends does it really matter which it is ,we are all people behind these screens that holds feelings and can get really hurt by simple things ,typed on line and would be no different than our friends we see face to face each day .

we laugh and argue and cry together and have success and fall in love at times ,it is all real .

so i feel friends are friends ,no matter where you find the at .