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Do you consider people you speak to online as being friends?

Judge said:
So did we.....and Concentric Network and a few others. Wonder if we crossed paths back then?
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If you were into reggae music, it would be a good possibility. I was also into technology, but wasn't everyone online in those days! :-)
 
Arrogant Penguin said:
If you were into reggae music, it would be a good possibility. I was also into technology, but wasn't everyone online in those days! :)
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The Sierra Network was another one....games mostly. Seems everyone kept modifying their plans to make them less affordable. Lucky the Internet did away with all that...paying by the hour was nuts. Funny, haven't thought of those times in years.
 
Judge said:
The Sierra Network was another one....games mostly. Seems everyone kept modifying their plans to make them less affordable. Lucky the Internet did away with all that...paying by the hour was nuts. Funny, haven't thought of those times in years.
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The Sierra games were my favorite, quite a step up from DOS based text adventure games!
 
nurseangela said:
Online people I talk to are usually seen as acquaintances. I consider a friend to be someone that I am in closer contact with such as texting or phone or in person. And no, they don't have to be in the same city. I used to have a really good friend up in Alaska that I texted every day and spoke to on the phone on holidays. Online just seems too cold for me.
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I want to change what I said before because one if my online friends actually made it to my Christmas card list! :)
 
It takes pretty long time before I start considering somebody a friend nowadays. There has to be certain level of closeness between me and them. And they need to show genuine interest as well (which almost never happens). In the end I do prefer meeting people in person, but, there're a few people in my life that I became closer to, learned more about after I started talking with them online. I knew them before communicating online. So I guess, for me online communication is more for supporting old friendships rather than for building new ones.
 
It's really hard to define what a friend actually is. Most online friendships are transient in nature and rarely last longer than a few months, and as such I don't have expectations of them. But if they stand the test of time and we don't lose touch, then yes, I can call them a friend. If at some point I meet up with the person and we get on well, and we continue to see each other or otherwise keep in touch, then I would consider them a close friend.
 
Loosely speaking, yes. But it works better once we've met in person.
 
Before finding this forum, I was always sceptical of the idea that any real relationships, could ever be formed online. Now, after making this place my new home, I find that some of the best people I've ever known, I've met online. I've managed to find some strong, meaningful, connections, online. Ones that I hope will last a lifetime.
 
I don't have offline friends. If not them, who?

They still spend time with me, don't turn their back on me if we have an awkward moment, and make me laugh. I try not to complicate the definition of a friend too much.
 
I definitely do! Of course, we have to be somewhat close. Then again, I blog. The people I talk to regularly are kind of, like, "duh", my friends. They're not really acquaintances after talking to the same people for years and years, and meh... offline friends (because online IS real life) are way too clingy for my liking and always feel like we always need to hang out. It's so annoying.
 
Yes and no. My main forum is GovTeen that I've been on about 1.5 years and have over 10,000 posts. I have some really great forum friends there. But I don't feel very attached to them. I know a few want to take things to the next level and Skype with me and stuff, but that's too close for me.
 
Friend.

Hm.

Depends.

If I can talk to you in public, in small group, and in 1-on-1 in a PM, and it feels easy to move back and forth between those exposures, then I might feel like I've made friends. Sometimes it's hard to tell. But, yes, I'm starting to think that I can make "friends" with people that I only "know" online.

I think about the "mask" stuff, how I as an aspie fix it on to go out and meet the world. I think that how my mask works in real life (if it actually does) must be different from how it works here, when all I have to express myself is typography, accompanied by occasional imagery.

I struggle with this a bit, as a friend is someone I would like to see in real life. On the other hand, it's been really hard to make friends as an adult working woman with a family, who is also aspie. Maybe real life is too much to expect, and friendships are about coffee at the monitor. IDK.
 
Yes, I do consider people I meet online to be potential real friends. I have a few like that. I have met some very sad, lonely people who have been able to connect with others, and watching them transform is really incredible sometimes.
 
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