Do Online Friendships Carry any Value?

[Gus]

I've got a few that I consider solid, but I only got them after years of regular interaction. To most people on and off the net, I am rather distant and hard to get to really know, so I don't get too much in the way of friends.

Ironically, because I back away from and filter out most people, the only ones I do put in effort to keep around are the best ones, so I'll focus my time on cultivating the few rather than rolling swells at surface floaters. The result is that I have really great quality and very low quantity.

 

[speedcore]

Yeah, I met some of my best friends online. Although it's best to make sure you don't get swept up into the obsession of "internet fame" - having as many "friends" as possible and spending unhealthy amount of time online - I had to struggle with that and I'm still working on it.

 

[drtoboggan]

Yes but don’t get catfished. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent hours chatting it up with some nerdy fat slob only to find out it was actually a hot chick playing me the whole time. Always be cautious online.

Damn filthy casuals. They’re not True and Honest nerdy fat slobs.

 

[RG 448]

Damn filthy casuals. They’re not True and Honest nerdy fat slobs.

When she claimed she weighed 347 pounds, lived in her mother’s basement, and played nothing but “touhou” (whatever the fuck that is) I should’ve known it was too good to be true.

 

[Smith Banquod]

Online friendships are so ruined by people who only want to kill time by occasional pokes and watercooler small talk that it's lost that initial value since it's rarely about making bonds that can last.
I think that what most people need is an AI that always responds back to them, or maybe I just need to find some better group chats.

 

[LagoonaBlue]

I think they can. I met my best friend through twitter, and have met up with them multiple times IRL.

 

[neger psykolog]

I have a hard time classifying online relationships as being much different to IRL relationships but it obviously depends whether you know what they look/sound like or if if you only know them through a message board.

I've known people online purely through message boards, through video and audio-only and I've had friends IRL as well. I don't always "fully" socialize with some people, who I'd just class as being acquaintances, but there are people online who I would call genuine friends where they've helped me with things and vice versa and its not just a small conversation.

I'm in a situation now where I spent all my life using computers the internet for my social life and I've been trying to make it more balanced, but if you go out with people they all take their phones out and start fucking Instagramming and all sorts of shit. So I'm sort of stuck in a position of asking myself "well what's the fucking point of getting off the internet because everyone else is clearly only using the internet now"

And the topics people discuss all usually revolve around the internet as well, so this whole "IRL" thing is kind of running second place to what happens on the internet.

So I started thinking "well what can I do and where can I go to meet people in real life" and more often than not everything still revolves around the internet in some way.

The best way I can think of and one that has always resonated with my understanding of being "social" is that if you're a weird motherfucker that browses k-farms, or you enjoy discussing specific & autistic topics the internet offers you the greatest ability to "meet" people who you can actually have a conversation with.

So if you cut off your online friendships to just test yourself and your ideas of being social, you'll probably find that things move backwards because its difficult to find people to connect with in real life depending on what your interests and what your personality is like.

Plus once you reach a certain age, everyone you know has gotten married or has kids and you can call them every weekend for 6 months and be like "yeah we should totally catch up soon man" and you'll never catch up.

Anyway, all that really matters on the internet or in real life is surrounding yourself with people you can respect, people you can learn with and people who you can laugh with. The line between what is "online" and what's real life is a lot blurrier now than previously and the distinction matters even less.

And when people say faggots on the internet and places like k-farms lie about who they are, it doesn't come close to the difference I see in some people when they present themselves offline versus online (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter)