The Value of Internet Friendships and “In Real Life” Friendships

[Weiss Schnee]

I enjoy both. When I was younger on Xbox live I met two people who were very near and dear to my heart. I loved them. I made one of them mad at me once and spent a week sobbing over it. I eventually tracked him back down and asked him to be my friend again.

I don't talk to them much anymore tho my feelings for them havent changed. I still love them. We're just farther apart and lifes gotten in the way.

I have a healthy social life tho. So I'm not alone. Tho if I had to put my feeling for one on the table it'd be my old Xbox friends hands down. I think about them daily.

 

[Babo]

There was a point where I valued my online friends over people I knew IRL - that encompassed my entire teens through to age 24. I started to hate feeling as if I was living my life through a phone or computer and it was having a terrible impact on my mental health. In the past year or so I've overhauled my life and started to build an offline circle of friends and that just feels so much more satisfactory. There are exceptions of course (most of whom are TBT users coincidentally) but for the most part I've redirected the time and energy spent talking to people online into people I either know in person or have met/intend to meet at an IRL event - i.e. a gig. My life feels so much richer for it.

That probably sounds like I don't value my online friendships at all. I do. But the amount of people I talk to online and truly consider to be a real friend has greatly decreased compared to what it used to be - which falls in line with spending significantly less time online.

I definitely have been through the same thing, though i occasionally still sink back into this “comfort zone” as a means to escape from the struggles of real life, the circle of real life friends i have now definitely helps keep me from being addicted to spending time online and ignoring the world around me

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

I have a few great online friends but I do not have a personal relationship with them as we only bond through games. I don't like talking about really personal things online because then it will be written somewhere online.. I feel more comfortable sharing my personal stuff with irl friends. Then again, I don't have much of those so I'm probably not a good person to ask this question cuz I can't compare really. But I guess the fact that I wish I could have real life friends over wishing I had more online friends kind of shows what I would prefer. I kind of just don't want to end up living my whole life through a screen. At the end of the day, spending physical time with a person is something I feel I really want from a friendship. But that doesn't mean I love my online friends less. But really.. friends are kind of a foreign concept to me XD I don't have much experience having them in general..

 

[Mayor Ng]

I value the people I meet online and the people I meet in real life equally. The only difference is whether they become friends or just acquaintances. The more you talk with someone and get to know that person, the stronger your friendship will become if the both of you are compatible. This concept is applicable to both online friends and irl friends. There's no sense in comparing the two since your friendship bond is determined by how close you are to a person. The only difference is that irl acquaintances can be judged based on physical actions and behaviour while online acquaintances can only be judged by personality and ofcourse with a grain of salt.

I would help anyone in need of help but I always prioritize my friends who I deem as good beings regardless of whether they are real or virtual

 

[seularin]

ive always had a hard time making rl friendships esp with my social-anxiety, so i dont have much lol it was easier for me to find friends on the internet since its difficult to find someone with the same/similar interests as you so good for me ig

that being said i value my online friendships more than rl ones since i’m not buddy-buddy (?) with them honestly; they’re more like acquaintances if that makes sense lmao

 

[rubyrubert]

I wish I had consistent online friends haha…

 

[limiya]

Never take me wrong, I love all of my irl friends dearly, but my online friends have such a special place in my heart, especially the ones who I’ve known since my middle school years where I struggled a lot with growing up due to the fact that I never got along very well with my parents.

They always felt like my chosen family to me, and I always looked so forward every day to be able to connect with them and be able to have them in my life. They often made me feel as if life was worth living for, and there’s no greater feeling than actually feeling like you have friends who will be there for you and support you no matter what.

 

[0019293893]

Some of my best friends are online and I consider them true friends. Distance shouldn’t matter

 

[Alienfish]

Some of my best friends are online and I consider them true friends. Distance shouldn’t matter

This. And one should never be ashamed of valuing online friends- sometimes aside from classmates/co-workers those might the only people that person spend time with for a bunch of reasons.

For me I definitely find people online easier and to keep up with them, people in real life are like either too differing from me or they suck at keeping up the friendship just because you don't have Snapchat/Messenger etc.

 

[namiieco]

I value real life friendships much more. Maybe it's my trust issues but it scares me how online friends can turn out to be complete different people or randomly disappear on you. In general I'm not the social type anyways so I have more irl friends because I'm forced to talk to people irl.