Online or real friends - Any distinctions?

One is a friend whom you will meet in the real life and another whom you may or may not meet in the real world but who can be among one of your best friends in your life.

Online friends can be more real than real friends as the medium of communications allow one to express their inner thoughts.

Before the computer age, when technology was not that advanced and there were no computers , e-mails, chat rooms , MSM,or cell phones ,we had to go to friends parties to meet new friends.

We could also browsed through those magazines for pen-pals columns to correspond with each other and make new friends which could lead to some ,meeting face to face later on.

With the advent of the new high technology like the computer,
the snail mail became outdated. We could make more friends online through web bloggings , e-mails, MSM ,forums etc .

We not only could chat online but could also view each other through the web cam.Technology has created what we call a virtual reality.

Is there any distinctions between online friends and real friends?

In the internet , there are all kinds of people. Some people write under their real names and there are others who write anonymously.

You can be anybody on the internet. The timid and the introverted in real life can assumed an opposite role online . The internet has given an opportunity to those who cannot communicate in the real life,to communicate with others online.

What you dare not do in real life because of your appearance or your shyness is not a problem when you go online.

There is secrecy and deceptions in the internet. A paedophile may go online and lure young girls to have sex with them.

Similarly, some policewoman may pretend to be a 14 year old girl to catch those paedophiles.

When you have known and talked with each other online for some time, you should be able to gauge the character of that person .You become good friends after a while. You may meet later in life when your path crossed. There are cases where they met their future spouse

In real life too, your real friends may not be telling you the whole truth.They could deceived you and you have to use your wisdom to decide how much to believed in your real friend.Most real friends are just superficial and only skin deep,for real friends are few.

There are not many real friends in this world because when troubles come , you wont find any real friends.It is very difficult to find a real friend who would stick with you though thick and thin. If you have such a friend , treasure them.A friend can only do so much.

In the real world ,your friends are real but in the written world , you will find a deeper side of your friend which cannot be revealed by just talking to each other.

In writing, your friend could reveal the inner person which s/he cannot expressed it in front of you.Similarly , when you are online, you could expressed your inner real person to your online friends.

They are more real and more intimate than your real friends even though you have never met them in real life.

In real life ,we are more reserved and on our guards.Whereas, online ,we may share our deepest thoughts without any reservations.

The online world is like a big gathering ,where you can meet all kinds of people all over the world.

The online friendship is just as valid as the real ones.It is a matter of knowing a person through online and meeting them later in life versus meeting the real people first and knowing them later through other forms of communications .

Most probably through a computer as many people have computers.Online relationships is just as real as in the real world.

The new internet technology has enabled us to make friends through out the world.Distant relationships is no more a problem and it is a very cheap way to make new friends .

Whether you want to carry forward that relationship or being more intimate will depends on your needs and what kind of friends you are looking for.

Be wise and use your common sense when online.



credit and thanks to

http://www.misbehaving.net/2003/12/virtual_intimac.html

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article2452928.ece