while playing world of Warcraft classic, i met alot of people who have been friends with eachother for years who met playing games or other hobbies. they spend so long chatting with eachother over discord and chatrooms, that they basically knew eachother better than some people they were friends with in real life. while it sounds wonderful you can build connections, friendships and even make long lasting relationship's online, i find two issues with that.
first, its the games. you met someone through the games you play right? but what happens once someone stops playing the game. alot of people i played with during Warcraft only kept playing because their friends kept playing. they didint want to lose that social connection they made and so, felt obligated to keep on playing just to keep the friendship alive which, brings in another problem.
two, how easy it is too lose the connection with a online friend. sure, you can still talk to them but as time goes on, and you do less online stuff with the person, you find less and less reason to keep contact with them. i have a friend of mine who used to play halo and COD with a guy during his teens/early twenties. they basically knew everything about eachother but once one of them stop playing, they lost contact and have not talked since. maybe real life obligations also plays an important role in that but why create a friendships online, when its so easy to lose it?
can you make real friendships online? of course you can! but, i think its harder to maintain that friendship and also easier to lose it. maybe kids have it easier these days because they are all open (in my opinion, too open) with who they are online unlike most of us that were told to never share our personal information and keep those online friendships, well, online.
i think fourm is good enough place to build somewhat of a kinship. its not too close but also, not so distant. but that's my opinion.
