Are online friends "real?"

So a person in a community I frequent recently asked this question and I thought it was interesting. And since this is my blog and can pretty much do what I darn well please here, within reason, I decided to write about it.

1) Do you treat them the same as you do your real life friends?

Yes, I laugh with them. I comfort them. I pray for them. I share with them. I giggle with them. I vent to them. I listen to them. So yes, about the same. Sometimes I talk to them in the middle of the night (Thanks West-coasters! :-) )

1)Are online friends real?

Yes, they are real people who I talk to on a regular basis and share parts of my life with. Heck, I've even shared some of my secrets with some of you. I talk a lot more freely with people online than I do in real life. I share more. I guess it feels like a safer relationship. See, I have a problem with relationships and I have a problem with trust. Let's just say that for a good part of my life, people hurt me. I was used by people I should have been able to trust. I was treated like garbage by people I should have been able to trust. In general, I don't like people because I generalize all of them as liars and manipulators. Sad? Yes. It is. It's sad that Hubs had to prove to me a million times that I could trust him before I would even think about loving him. It's sad that I have to worry that someone is going to make M feel the same way. Talking to people online is different, though. For one thing, it's easy to seek out people who think like me, who feel like me, and who like the same things I do. So yes, they are, you are all, real friends to me in my mind. Because of said things in the past I also have trouble talking to people. I can't look people in the eye and I have trouble actually speaking to people I don't know really well. I'm a broken person, what can I say? Anyway, it's much easier for me to spill to all of you because I can type rather than having to speak. And if I ever do get the opportunity to meet any of you in real life, I think I would be able to speak to you without major problem. Because I've already gotten to know you.

So yeah. Having online friends has actually helped me. I've been a loner my whole life. Not by choice. I'm just one of those people who never seems to fit. I'm awkward and shy and a wallflower. I have more friends now, counting my online friends, than any other time in my life and that makes me happy.

So what do you think of your online friends?