Re: Online Friends Are Real Friends

For my third and final JulyReply entry, I selected a really obvious--at least to me--blog for responding. The Absurd Pirate talks about the transition of how "online friends" are perceived by others, as there was at one time a harder wall separating the world of offline and online friendships. Nowadays, the stigma may have dissipated, but questions about what "offline" and "online" friendships persist: I think of a friend who moves away, and that you only talk to online anymore. By all intents and purposes, they're now mostly an "online" friend. But does that really change the bond you made with that person? Is the fact that person is now on a screen for all of your communication make your friendship any less valuable? Folks can jump over this proverbial wall in either direction. Your college friends or friends from your first post-college job may have moved to different cities or states in the intervening years. Your online friend whom you have talked with for a couple decades meets…