Demographics: Internet friends vs Real-life friends

[strawman]

Check all the answers that apply to you.

If you have friends which could be both internet friends vs real life friends based on how you met them or how much you interact with them in either sphere, consider them real life friends.

Yes, I know that it doesn't matter whether a friend is an internet friend or a real life friend. Petty distinctions, however, are all we've got to argue about around here anyway.

If you have a hard time deciding what "most" means to you, consider the following question: "If I had to give up either all my internet friends, or all my real life friends, which one would I give up?" Yes, that does factor in closeness, which may not mesh with quantity, but that's just how life goes sometimes, isn't it? So which of your friends are you willing to deep six if it means keep your other friends, huh?

 

[blotsfan]

I like you guys, but I would definitely choose my real life friends if forced to.

Edit: and I didn't check it but I would've clicked "I spend more free time with my internet friends than with my real life friends." Mostly as a function of computer time vs time when plans with friends are doable.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I make no distinction between friends that I live in close proximity to, and those I've met only through long distance communication. Some are liked more than others, but they are on both sides of the spectrum.

 

[GasBandit]

You guys aren't real, how could you possibly meet my friends?

 

[Hailey Knight]

All of my friends live far away from me now; how I met them is irrelevant. But I will say I'm closest to the people I met in college.

 

[Frank]

I'm very cold to internet folk. I'm pretty well incapable of making close friendships online. At best I have acquaintances.

 

[North_Ranger]

I'm very cold to internet folk. I'm pretty well incapable of making close friendships online. At best I have acquaintances.

I thought we had something special...

 

[Chad Sexington]

I'd hang out with any of you. None of you are my best friends.

 

[Terrik]

So, I can't tell---am I a friend of JCM's, or is he a friend of all of us? I'm having a hard time telling the alts apart.

 

[Emrys]

I love you all but I'm not real.

 

[phil]

I'd hang out with any of you. None of you are my best friends.

 

[klew]

Most are real life, pretty much all of them are high school friends, a couple from college. Former overseas co-workers are now occasional online friends. Last group are like you people, essentially internet pen pals.

 

[fade]

 

[Neon Pirate]

Most are real life, if you believe that I have a real life. I work way too much so I rarely get to see any of my friends, don't talk to but a few from high school or college and at this point would have to say that most of my friends are parents from my kids' various activities (especially soccer). Thanks to all of the time spent on a soccer field I do get to see those folks more regularly and they are some fantastic people! I need to rent a life, at least for a little while.

 

[Bowielee]

You guys are cool and all, but I pretty much just waste time here at work, in between classes, when I'm bored at home. That being said, I think one of the things I'd like to explore is how the younger generations who grew up on chatrooms are affected socially.

 

[David]

The majority of close friends I talk to on a regular basis are all friends I met physically at college. I'm friended with many of you on Facebook and Steam, but don't seem talk to most of you too often, although I would be welcoming to anybody who wanted to strike up a conversation with me and maybe hang out if you happened to live close by. If I'm wary of introducing a particular person to my primarily "real life" friends, chances are it's because that person is someone I've decided I don't mesh well with or don't particularly enjoy talking to myself.

 

[sixpackshaker]

I have some friends on the internet that I wouldn't want to introduce to my real life friends.

I'd like to reverse this option. I have some real life friends that act like internet Trolls in real life.

 

[fade]

You guys are cool and all, but I pretty much just waste time here at work, in between classes, when I'm bored at home.

Ditto. Mostly at work though.

 

[Officer_Charon]

Honestly, I'm better online than I am in real life, usually because I can take a few more seconds and come up with (occasional, rare) spurts of wit, rather than coming off as borderline autistic with a flat affect in real life (I'm not, I just forget how real people interact sometimes.)

Plus, you can lurk online without coming off as (that weird guy in the corner, breathing heavily).

Yeah, pants are overrated.

 

[BananaHands]

Considering the fact that I'm someone's alt, all of my friends are internet friends.

 

[Azurephoenix]

You guys are all pretty cool and there's a fair number of you that I wouldn't mind meeting in real life if the chance ever presented itself. I think some of you would make great real life friends too.

That said, my real life friends are much closer to me than I could ever be with internet friends.

 

[tinabeebz]

I feel like I connect with my real life friends on an awesome emotional/social level, but I share way more common interests with my internet friends.


Also, I was recently told that I'm overwhelmingly nice in person and kind of scary and "murdery" online. I wonder what that says about my internet friends? Hahaha.

 

[sixpackshaker]

At a party Saturday, two of my friends had an argument with a total Chaz vs. Charlie vibe. "That's misogynistic" must have been said about a dozen times. Or, "if you weren't so funny, I'd call the cops."

 

[CrimsonSoul]

There is no option for all of my friends are on the internet...

 

[strawman]

There is no option for all of my friends are on the internet...

Don't worry, all my friends have internet access too.

 

[CrimsonSoul]

Don't worry, all my friends have internet access too.

Well I mean I had two friends one moved to Hawaii the other to San Antonio and everyone else is on halforums

 

[PatrThom]

I have more friends (A) in real life than I have (B) on the Internet (assuming that people who are A+B are tallied solely as A).
I probably correspond more with the friends I have on the Internet. This is because real-life friends are more demanding, overall.

--Patrick

 

[Chad Sexington]

(assuming that people who are A+B are tallied solely as A)

Just want you to know how much I appreciate this; I had the exact same thought when assessing my internet/"real-world" friends.

 

[Jay]

I'm very cold to internet folk. I'm pretty well incapable of making close friendships online. At best I have acquaintances.

I THOUGHT WE WERE BROS MAN

 

[strawman]

Bump because it's been on my mind again recently, and if I wanted to review what I thought about it in the past then it's likely others would too.

 

[blotsfan]

Yeah, I feel differently about this. I can't say I was that close with North Ranger, but it effected me a lot more than I expected.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I make no distinction between friends that I live in close proximity to, and those I've met only through long distance communication. Some are liked more than others, but they are on both sides of the spectrum.

I stand by my statement.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I'm having a hard time answering this. I did meet my best friend and my husband online though we quickly met in "real life" and the relationships moved from strictly online interactions. I have a lot of real life friends who I can only spend time with online now because we live so far from each other. Are they online friends because of that or are they real life friends since I met them originally in school, work, or through other people? I mean, you guys are online friends, but I have met Doc. He and I used to chat a lot on FB while he was deployed. Is he an online friend because we mostly interact online or real life friend since we met? How do you define that? Am I making this too hard?

 

[Ravenpoe]

I mentioned this in the NR thread, and I'll briefly summarize it here. "Real life" is a weird and frankly incorrect way to categorize things. Everything you do occurs in your real life, because you are present. Whether you talk to a person face to face, over the phone, through internet communication or mail letters to each other, you are still sharing ideas and being influenced. There is no 'fake life,' because everything you experience is experienced, regardless of the media.

 

[Tinwhistler]

I've been hanging out online since I was around 13. That was back in the day of 50bps modems.

Even back then, the line between "online" friends and "real life" friends was pretty blurred. Most of the "online" people I knew were local, because modems used phone lines, and long distance was expensive. We would meet up, hang out, people would hook up, break up, etc, just like any other friends you meet.

That's pretty much been the way of things for me ever since. I met one of my best friends on a dial-up chat board twenty years ago. He soon became a kung fu student and then a friend after that, and we're still friends to this day. We've caroused together, hung out at each others houses, helped each other move. I've visited his sick mother in the nursing home, and he once drove across town with no notice to help me move a car with a blown engine.

Friends are friends. Doesn't matter where you make them.