Online friends versus "Real" friends

1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?

yup, many ... most of them are metalhead that i met in gigs... but i became friends with some people from the Gathering MB, and we didn't need to wait a gig to have a party (since they were french, belgian, swdsuiogh.... (hmmm ... a guy from switzerland), dutch, polish and of course german people who went to Berlin only to have a party with internet friends)

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?

they don't care, i think ... but i don't care if they do

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?

of course they are legitimate ! i would't drive almost 1000 km only to meet them if not. i am planning to travel to the netherlands next summer and sleep to another internet friend, so ...
 
Originally posted by Ivo
Well about TG forum I met there some enemies!!!!
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i don't want to continue that debate here :)
but please notice i only asked you to argue

but the problem for you was that almost all the regular users of that MB are more of less real life friends (in the #2 thread, you, Fabiola (who is new on the forum) and Abbath were the only 3 i have never met), and SICK is one of my best friend in real life.
so everyone tries to defend everyone.

but i totally disagree with you, the 2 last albums being my 2 favorites :)
 
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?

quit a few actually. Couple of years ago we did this 4-week tour with a bunch from the Official Maiden board (while Maiden was on tour); these bastards are still residing on the Ultimate Chat forum; Anyway, that was extremely cool.

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?

Well, since they already know by now, that I ain't talking to old fat women and stuff, they realise it could broaden your adress book a bit :) . They wouldn't do it, but they ain't against it really.


3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?

Sure there are quite a few people I care about. I don't value them any less than real life friends. Though I'm not gonna stay home from a pub visit or party to have a on-line chat evening with them. I prefer not to go into too much serious conversations on the bb either, just some random nonsense chit chat. Sometimes a 5 minute joke is worth more for a friendship than 3 hours of life stories, ye know.

As far as the girl friend issue. It's got something beautiful and very romantic to have a far mysterious girlfriend out there, but I think most of times it's escapism. Anyone you could meet on the web, you could have met in real life (I mean not the person itself, but sb with the same mentality and character,...)

So, I prefer the real life hunting :)
 
Originally posted by Lina

1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?
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1) I have never met an Internet friend in person, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. I don't really have any Internet friends that are that close. It would be more along the lines of just seeing someone at a concert.

2) I don't really have any "real-life" friends that I talk with about being online. My brother knows I spend all of my time online and has learned to deal with it. He doesn't go out much either so he can somewhat relate.

3) Most of my Internet friends were once "real-life" friends so it's pretty different. I don't really have many Internet friends other than the people here. I don't purposely make the two realms separate, but I suppose I make the distinction subconsciously. I can definitely see myself getting attached to someone online. They are most certainly real people despite the barrier of the Internet and the hundreds or thousands of miles apart. I think Internet friends are much better than "real-life" friends because there is the element of mystery and not really knowing what they are like. There is always something you can learn about them, and you can always share your own personal details. The Internet allows you to say what's really on your mind without having to worry about restraining yourself. I find talking/typing online to be much easier than trying to talk to someone in "real-life".
 
dude.,.,online people are the fucking shit.,.,.,i met my band online.,.i think i met more people online for bands than actually going out to look for people.,., (which is kinda pathetic :cry: )
i think that its easier to relate to people online than in real life.,.,.cuz real life sux..,.,:mad:
 
Originally posted by WarHead
dude.,.,online people are the fucking shit.,.,.,i met my band online.,.i think i met more people online for bands than actually going out to look for people.,., (which is kinda pathetic :cry: )
i think that its easier to relate to people online than in real life.,.,.cuz real life sux..,.,:mad:
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True - because most of us come here to escape that thing they call life. We get enough of it - so we need a break - a place to come and REALLY talk and relate with no BS attached to it.
 
Originally posted by Lina
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?
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Not that I can recall. I have spoken to a few people on the phone though.

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?
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No one that I know has ever given it a second thought.

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?
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It depends. If you connect with a person on a intellectual or emotional level, and keep in regular contact, then I don't believe that you have to have been in the direct presence of each other in order to be legitamate friends. While there are some people who take on a persona very different from their real selves while online, I've always tried to just be myself and I've been lucky in that I have attracted like-minded people with whom I speak online and vice-versa.

That being said, however, I tend not to get too attached to people online. This is simply due to the fact that people's tastes and interests tend to shift rather drastically when it comes to which boards they post at, whether or not they continue to use the same IM or IRC channel, or just loose interest in online conversation entirely. One of the more convenient aspects of the internet is that while it's simple enough to join a board and meet people, it is just as simple to just dissapear one day.
 
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?

Nay. Most of the people (and there's only a handful) I got in contact with through the 'net, are from other (predominantly English-speaking) countries. On this board, there's nobody from Ukraine but me.

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?

Those to whom I've mentioned this board, have no problem whatsoever - from my descriptions and stories they sense the vast difference between the Opeth/UM board and faceless chat-rooms filled with amoebae.

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?

"Online" is only a method of communication, the "net-freaks" who dwell in chat-rooms notwithstanding. The people here are as real as those who I know "personally" - and I feel that we do share a lot. The majority of us are for honest expression and responsibility for our words. Even though we present ourselves with invented "nicknames" and "avatars", everybody seems open and true. I do feel attached to this community, and I have great respect for many of you, even for those whom I constantly disagree with. Plus, here I can discuss many topics which I can't discuss with my off-line friends because of their lack of interest or because of exhausted opinion exchanges with no possibilities of progress.

Darn, I have to scan my pictures and post them - I have some really cool shots. :)

Andrew Orel (aka D Mullholand)
 
I have few friends in "real life", a life which is meaningless.


I have more friends on the internet, and they are much better than the people I know here. The friends I have here, are good friends, because I spend more time with fewer people.

I can still relate and talk to certain people in the internet more openly. I have more in common (Though still a lot in difference) to them, two of them to be specific, and I know noone in person with that much in common with me.
 
Originally posted by Lina
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?
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Dozens and dozens. It's the entire point of being online. Every one of my friends since I moved to Georgia in 1992, and every one of my lovers, I met online. I just don't really talk to people in real life, because there's no outward reason to. Online, take for example every last person in this forum, I have something in common with, and I can 'scout' them before ever talkign to them. In real life, all you have is their physical body to go on at first, which means NOTHING. I've always thought talking to people in real life is a waste of time, because you have NO idea if they're shit, and telling people to piss off once you find that out is a pain in the ass. I get around most of that by just hanging out online and seeing who's cool.
 
1) I have never met anyone I talk to online in person, but it goes without question if I ever do, I want it to be people from this forum.

2) Many of my "real" friends talk as much if not more so than I do online. My roommate talks online most of the day in fact, but only with people he knows, he has never formed an online friendship. I find that weird because with the internet you can form a friendship minus the BS that goes along with meting someone in person initially, online you can get right to "it" :D

3) I most certainly do consider internet friends, friends, I see the internet as yet another place to meet people, not a foreign landscape where one can never truly know people. I see no reason to separate the people you have met and the people you meet online. Granted it is slightly more difficult to gauge things in the beginning on the internet, but the pace online catches up quickly. A friend is a friend.
 
LINA YOU STOLE MY THREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

actually for about a month ive been meaning to write this exact thread but never have, coz im too lazy..

:lol:


i have 3 internet friends, i love them all, but god knows what they really think of me, half the time i think they dont really care, but then thats just me, they talk to me all the time so they must.

Im meeting one of them in March and that will be the first time. (kinda nervous about that!)

and yeh i know stuff about all my online friends that none of their real friends know, and vice versa. (and i mean big important things.. ). But i dont know what they are like to 'hang around with' or anything.

Internet friendships are different, in some ways they are better, in other ways they arent. And so the best thing is to have good friends in real life, and good internet friends... with those you get the best of bost worlds. :)

(and of course anyone on this board can feel free to msg me on icq or anything, i'd love to get some new internet friends with similar interests! :) )
 
Originally posted by Jim LotFP


Dozens and dozens. It's the entire point of being online. Every one of my friends since I moved to Georgia in 1992, and every one of my lovers, I met online. I just don't really talk to people in real life, because there's no outward reason to. Online, take for example every last person in this forum, I have something in common with, and I can 'scout' them before ever talkign to them. In real life, all you have is their physical body to go on at first, which means NOTHING. I've always thought talking to people in real life is a waste of time, because you have NO idea if they're shit, and telling people to piss off once you find that out is a pain in the ass. I get around most of that by just hanging out online and seeing who's cool.
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come on, man. You're just shy, or afraid to talk to people.
 
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?
Yes, I've met some, but I've like to meet all of them :) Those who I've met have been really nice people here online, but in person they've been even nicer. I've got wonderful eternal (?) friends. One example is Eddy (from Maiden board) who I met yesterday :D :)

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?
They don't really understand it :p They think that all you do online is have cyber sex and stuff, so....But I've tried to make them understand that here are really nice, intelligent people too...Maybe some day they'll understand :p

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?
I think internet friends can be "real" friends too, I don't separate them. Like I said, I've met people from internet and got some awesome friends forever.
 
1) Have any of you met an internet friend in person?

2) What do your "real-life" friends think of the time you spend online?

3) Do you consider your internet friends to be "legitimate" friends? Or do you purposefully make an effort to keep the two realms separate? Meaning, do you not let yourself get attached to anyone online because "they're not real"?
Click to expand...

1)Mmm...i dont think so.

2)Right now they dont mind, but this wasnt always like this. I got kicked out of my band cause i expended too much time on internet and they say it was easier to use another guitar player than calling me on the phone, of course i was not confronted with this i was just betrayed for a year. Some other pseudo friends in real life have complained but generally fall flat when they propose things for me to do instead of the net.

3)I never make an efford to keep the realms separated, ive even been inlove with a person i only knew on the net. It was a mistake but not because of the net but because of the person herself but i rather not give any painful details. I usually mistrust all people in internet, but those who make an efford to reach out to me ( like Blackspirit :p ) and are not bother by my usual boring aspect in the net ( something happens to me on the net but i have nothing to talk about ) i usually start liking and can grow pretty close to. There is no difference to real life friends to me i have almost the same hard time to make friends on the net that i grow to consider them real friends, inconveniences to talk to them only or seen them only in picture dont bother me, half of my real life friends i only talk on the phone or icq mainly because of their busy life, only difference is that i get to see them from time to time.
 
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