Real life friends and Online friends

[Lewis]

Well... My question is, do you see online friends as being just as equal to real life friends... Like... Do you consider them the same? Do you think real life friends matter more than online friends?

[MKR&*42]

I see them as 100% equal, friendship does not alter to me whether someone is online or irl and I think both can be equally important if you use the internet a fair bit :P

[wixard]

yeah i'd consider mine equal, like i'd consider @sex (http://www.habboxforum.com/member.php?u=101389); my best friend just as much as my best friends irl
probably more even cos he knows me better than any of them and we talk more

[Empired]

This is an interesting question. I think the line between online friends and real life friends is becoming more and more blurred as you talk to your real life friends more and more online and by text rather than face to face. Although now it's embarrassing to have online friends, I think in about 10 years' time everyone will have them.

As to which group of friends is better, I don't know how to answer. The argument for "real life friends know you better" is just not true. I must have said more on my thoughts and opinions on Habbo than I have in my whole life out loud. Both are just as good as each other.

[Lewis]

To answer my own question, I'd class online friends as equal. Maybe even better in someways, but still, equal. For me, it's easier to speak to people through the internet, share my thoughts, emotion, and other stuff. People know me a 1000x better on the internet than people in real life.

[Absently]

For me I've never really been able to consider irl friends and online friends as being equal, due to the whole fact that so many people lie online and could be completely hiding who they really are whereas irl it's harder to do that. Although, I don't really consider online people to be my friends at all unless I've met them.

[-Amyy]

I definitely see online friends and real life friends as equal. I consider Rosy to be one of my really close friends as we have spoken almost every day for nearly 3 years I think, she is like my big sister :) I'd say my online friends probably know me better than my real life friends

[geo]

used to think they were equal but now have v. few online friends and totally see new, rl friends as different. not that they matter more, just i'm closer to the people irl and i just don't think i have many/any close online friends (maybe i have 2 idk!)

i don't see any as more important etc it's just different

[buttons]

yea years ago id put them as most important bc told them more was more myself with them etc but not anymore. if ive met u i see u as a rl friend, not an internet friend anyway

[karter]

i see them as equal tbh even though my online friends would know more about me than my rl friends but you can't really hang out with your online friends which sucks

[Futz]

I'd say equal in all honesty

[Yawn]

no but i'd rather talk to my habbo friends than my irl friends when im online so that probably says a lot

[FlyingJesus]

With like 2 maybe

[Zelda]

prefer my online friends tbh cause I can actually confide in them and discuss my problems unlike my rl ones, and much less scarier then being around people irl too.

definitely see them as equal though, just because you don't see them irl doesnt make them any less a friend

[Explorator]

I can't really say I have many online friends who I talk to regularly.

But there's a couple I value as equal.

[Gina]

errrm theres a few that i'd consider equal i thinkk

[Jurv]

i can see why people see them as equal but i personally don't

i'm not really close to people online as much as i used to be, i talk to my rl friends way more and find it easier to tell em stuff

[!x!dude!x!2]

I like my online friends more than my real life friends

[Sloths]

I class my internet friends as equal to my irl friends even though as Charlie mentioned its still a bit embarrasing to have internet friends to some people. My few close internet friends know me as well or more than my best friend irl so I dont see why just because theyre someone else in world it should be any different. I've talked to a few people everyday for years now and thats more than I do with most of my friends irl so they're fab x

[FlyingJesus]

I don't get why people still find it embarrassing like it's 2013 come on, 2 of my cousins are married to people they met online and they're fabulously happy

[lucaskf390]

They are not same, but I respect them as I respect real friends.

[wixard]

I don't get why people still find it embarrassing like it's 2013 come on, 2 of my cousins are married to people they met online and they're fabulously happy

theres just a stigma attached to it, for the younger generation that's definitely not as bad as it was for us growing up as they're interacting quite a lot more through social media sites like twitter or Instagram where communicating with strangers is pretty common. for me personally, i wouldn't have the balls to tell anyone in my life right now about Internet people as they just wouldn't understand

[Matt]

I don't see the equal as I don't seem to trust many people online. They can say whatever they want to say without me being able to prove it and it takes a lot for me to trust them. More than once has someone i know come out as a girl thats been pretending to be a guy so its kind of like, i dont know if i trust what everyone says they are, as I can't exactly prove it. It varies i guess

[-Moniquee.]

My in real life friends would know me a lot better. It makes it harder online because of people stealing people's identity etc, so it makes it hard for me to trust some people.
But I have met some cool people online who have family friends that I know so its easier to trust them.

[Kardan]

They would never be equal in my eyes. At the end of the day, I think you know your real life friends a whole lot more than your online ones. I mean, you know their parents, you go around their house, in some cases you've grown up with them. With the internet you might be friends for a few months, and then bam! Turns out they're actually male.

Personally I don't feel like you can even have the same connection with someone online than in real life. Words on a screen can't really replace body language etc.

[Shar]

1 person from habbo and 2 people on here.

[AgnesIO]

Online friends are definitely not equal to me, no need to explain.

[Elegance]

to me they're equal, maybe even more. :)

[j0rd]

I would like to say yes but unfortunately really don't.
There's one or two I would say are pretty equal but others definitely not.

If I told my mates I have "online friends" they probably wouldn't take it seriously and give me a few slaps ha
When I met GoldenMerc; I had to tell my mate I was with that I knew him irl when I was younger which was pretty awkward!

[GoldenMerc]

When I met Jord i told my girlfriend that he was a welsh *****, she understood.

when I met kieran everyone thought i knew him irl

[zombies]

i don't think they're the same in a way for obvious reasons, for example: they're online. you can't do much apart from being online to talk to them. if you're only talking to them on habbo, then there would be a massive difference. if you were taking it further and talking to them on skype, it wouldn't be much different. your real friends irl should always be there for you (well they are in my case), online i'm not so sure.

[AgnesIO]

Just to add to my earlier post, online friends wouldn't know if I was having a rough time, or (in a drastic way) if I died. My real friends would.

[Zak]

As much as I like you guys nothing can beat friends irl. Not that I have any. but yeh if i did :P

[Special]

i defiantly do not see online friends equal as real life friends, i prefer social interaction with people i consider friends

[Gibs960]

I'd say some internet friends can be more important that irl friends, I feel like I can talk more to a person on the internet and they won't judge me sort of thing because they've chosen to be friends with me rather than through circumstance.

[Craptarded]

You see, I have a few internet friends that have become my in-real life friends. I find it fun, and great, as long as you realise who the person is your meeting. and its always best to meet as a group. But I consider Real Life friends far more important that the internet ones, however, i still deeply care for every person i meet, whether it be online, or real life :) Everyone is a person, therefore I treat them as equals. :) I treat people well, as long as they treat me well.

[-:Undertaker:-]

No.

A person can, if they want to, be a totally different person online to what they are like in real life.

[compositeLegend]

Although it seems easy to classify online friends and real life friends as having equal status, I would be more leaning towards choosing real life friends as having more importance. If I decide to meet online friends in reality, then their position would change. I find that the face to face contact places a crucial role in relationship building, and it's a bit more difficult to figure out what type of personality a person has with just online contact, because you may only see one side of a person.
I have close friends that I have met online, but later on decided to meet in real life, and have hung out with ever since. We talk to each other online still, but because we also see each other in reality, the status changed from "online friends" to "real life friends".
That's why I find that real life friends are more important that online friends, but online friends can become real life friends.