Do you think its sad most,if not all,of a person's "Friends" are Internet Friends they never met?

[Midnightclass239]

A trend I notice that rising at an alarming rate with young people in this generation-especially those who tend to be from subcultures labeled as "nerdy cultures" such as Otakus, Fantasy fans, Sci-Fi buffs, hardcore gamer, and so on-is that more often than not, not only do they waste so much time on the internet but also many (if not most) members of these cultures often have an overwhelmingly majority , if not all, of their friends from the internet. IMO its fine if your interact with most of your friends if you knew them for some time (such as say back in HS) and they live so far way or you're so busy you can't spend free-time with them going out. The terrifying thing about these internet nerds I'm referring to is they NEVER MET any of their so-called "friends" from the internet IN PERSON!

TBH I was once like this and for nearly 3 years, my social interaction was like this. I'd spend so much of my free time chatting with people who I though was cool on forums and chat rooms and felt they were real friends (I even consider 2 as my best friends)-despite HAVING NEVER MET ANY OF THEM BEFORE IN PERSON!

I'm not the only one. I know of this other person who was so socially inadequate he was voted "Most likely to commit Columbine" upon graduating from High School. I'm not mocking this guy FYI (I don't even know him outside of the internet so I hold no bad feelings against him and I too was once like him). From the chats I seen where he was a part of the group, as well as his posts, it seems like he has no real-life friends (or if he has some he didn't mention them). He treated the online friends as though they were his own IRL as well as an internet forum as though it was his only avenue of social interaction (granted I don't know him IRL but thats what I noticed before I left the forum I knew him in).

There are many more people I can name that fit this image. In fact there are several entire forums on the internet inhabited by such socially awkward people-Lounge Moviecodec, OBD, and the RidersofHavoc just to name a few.

In fact go read this question I just asked a few hours ago which go hand-in-hand with this one to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...313AAiTH0k

Now I no longer use internet as much aside from Astrology Forums (which I'm serious in), Boxing Forums(technically not active yet but will start being this week, research, and Facebook.

Most of my friends are no longer from the web with the exception of Gerald Cline (who is a TC in the History Section of Yahoo Answers and our friendship extended beyond the internet and into he realm of pen-pall/phone call buddy), Sailor Capricorn (from a Sailor Moon Forum and while we're technically still only internet buddies, we've went to the point we're sharing painful personal memories and thoughts and I have a feeling we're going to extend beyond this to pen-pal or even deeper),Senecherib (also on Yahoo Answers and we got close enough to reveal stuff we would never tell to strangers) and multiple friends from Facebook(almost all who I knew as acquaintances or even actual friends back in HS-so I actually have met them and know their basic info at least).

Other than these, I now have real-life friends,which while few, certainly are far superior to having internet friendships.

What do you think?Do you agree its sad of a person's friends mostly come from the internet and are people they never met in person?Disagree?

[kate]

I guess it is a bit sad, unless they just don't wanna have friends in person. I was like this too, I even had a boyfriend online tht I never met in person and fell in love which is nuts. I guess the real question is if it's healthy as opposed to sad lol. Healthy for sure not unless the person is happy, then again it could be fake happiness. I guess there's not a problem meeting friends online and getting super close,.maybe if the relationships work out one day they can meet up and be friends in person, but it is definitely needed to have those real life connections, and by real life I mean in person lol. I agree though with you, it can be a bit sad depending on the persons life and how serious they take their efriends

[Rob]

It's pathetic

[Child Thief]

i dont know any of my friends irl