Are online friends as valuable as friends in real life?
They can be, but it is much harder to find in real life, so those are much more rewarding friendships. If you START a friendship online, and move to friends in real life, that can be quite rewarding. For the most part though, I believe that having too many friends online, and not in real life, is a form of either escapism or antisocial behavior. Not to bash people, I mean no offense. I do, however feel that with the internet, it is too easy for someone to sit in front of their computer, instead of seeking actual human contact. Talking to people online may technically be human contact, but it lacks any truly personal interaction.
