How real is virtual?

How real are virtual relationships?

The Internet has totally revolutionized the way we socialize. It has broken barriers of time, geographical boundaries and distances. It has shrunk the world, and you can reach anyplace in any remote corner of the world, including inside minds of people, with just a click, without even moving out of your bedroom.

There are reams and reams written about dangers of social networking, as well as advantages of them. All of us, who are regular internet users, have at least a few ‘online’ friends, whom we have never met. They fulfill all the requirements of a friend in ‘real life’. They listen to your problems, offer you help, are there when you need them and you can count on them for emotional and moral support.

Apart from the social networking sights, there is the enormous blogosphere, which serves as an ideal platform, to interact with many interesting people. It is amazing how quickly relationships move, on the internet, almost at the speed of light. You find yourself connecting so quickly through blogs and mails and offline messages left for you. I am amazed when many of you, write to me, as though you completely know me (which in fact you do, through my blog) and treat me like a long lost friend.(I feel happy and am honored too, to share a bit of your lives)

Personally, I have had a great experience. I had earlier written about how I met Ritu, so randomly, in real life and how she recognized me because of my blog .We have become such good friends now. (Click here in case you want to read the whole story)

With Niall too, but for my blog, I would never have made such a good friend. This was only because I was willing to let online become ‘real’.

For the last two days, a friend whom I had lost touch with and whom I reconnected through Orkut ,(It is amazing how many people it has helped to connect with) had not come online. I texted her asking if anything was wrong. She told me that her monitor was faulty and had gone for repair. She was happy to hear from me.

I was touched when Asha (a fellow blogger whom I have never met) sent me a message on my dad’s first death anniversary ,telling me that I was in her prayers.

To me, all my blog friends and all the people who leave comments, are as real as my ‘real life’ friends. I think about, Sue and Marja and Hershey and Gillian and many others whose blogs, I read and comment on regularly. They are not just people who live somewhere in cyberspace. To me, they are friends whom I have never met.

Therefore, I was really shocked when an online friend (whom I consider a good friend, but whom I have never met) said that most people are just killing time and that while he does care about his 'real life' friends,the people whom he has not met, are just faceless idiots, not worth bothering about. I was shocked at the insensitivity and the cruelty in that statement he made. It left me thinking. (Was I a fool to take an online friendship seriously?)

It led me thinking though—How ‘real’ are these friendships or relationships? Are you only as relevant as your last blog post? For instance, if you stopped coming online from this very moment, how many of your online friends, will really bother to call and ask you what has happened? Do people really care?

What do you say? Are virtual friendships providing us with a false sense of intimacy and support? What is ‘real’? What is your take on this?

I would love to hear what you have to say.