I feel the same. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Chris: stop misleading. In your case they are the same! :-) - Robert Scoble

I couldn't agree more Chris! - Kyle Lacy

Because they haven't had the same experience? All my RL friends that don't do much online, don't understand. The ones that are online, do. - ·[▪_▪]·

My online friends have shown me than they are MORE awesome than my offline friends. Not to say that my offline friends are not awesome, but that they are not exactly an informative/technologically-inclined type of crowd. For me: The more you know about tech, the more awesome you are :) - Michael Forian

probably awesomer. - Tim Hoeck

It was not very long ago that friendships and romances were carried out almost exclusively (sometimes exclusively) by post, aka snail mail, that really was slow as hell and took weeks to be delivered. - Michael W. May

I'm guessing some people analogize online friends with imaginary friends... but I agree and I have more on friends than off - Far

I have many good friends online. Now with things like Skype to go beyond IM, why not? - Jake (aka Jawee)

My husband started out as my online friend. :D - Rochelle

@Aden Yea, I get strange reactions too when I tell my RL friends the same thing. But hey, I ended up meeting them for the first time at my wedding. :) - Daynah

I've had online friends who have maintained contact with me since before 1995, many of whom I have sustained friendships with offline, as well. Two of my greatest offline friends, I had known offline for about four and five years, but have known, in total, for nine years and for seven years, respectively. Some of my online friends and I manage to swap out holiday gifts via snail mail, though have never met offline - yet we know each others' quirks, and always seem to find the right gifts. Go figure. - thekcar