i know that i can spend a lot of time chatting online... if i had the net at home..i'd spend too much time on here (once i can find people to talk to me)..

so question about social loneliness .. can internet people be your friends.. and satisfy your social needs.. or do you need more? Do you absolutely need close friends to go out with and to call you and all that to be happy?

is it unhealthy in your opinion if all your close friends are people who you have never met?
can you consider internet people as real friends at all?

You're lucky you don't have internet at home - I do and I spend about 25 hours a day on it. ><

Anyways, you do actually need to socialize "in real life". When you interact with people face-to-face, both you and the other individual constantly express non-verbal forms of communication, such as body language and subtle facial expressions. It's the cumulative of all these subtle degrees of communication that really makes you feel attached to the person (in a biochemical sort of way, not necessarily in an affectionate way) that satisfies your body's need for socialization.

It also greatly helps to put a visual "label" on the person - if you don't know what the "online" person you're talking to looks like, your brain has the conflict of realizing it's communicating with another human being, and yet it also subconsciously can't get past the fact that the other person is really just an output of text.

Still, having friends online does help to ease the immediacy of loneliness. And it's great if you're like me, and you're always awake when everyone else in your area of the country is sleeping, but there are people on the other side of the world who are awake to keep you company.

Nope. See my post in the "Depression" thread. The Internet makes you MORE lonely. If we didn't have the internet, we'd be forced to go out and make new friends. But instead, we're creeped up in the house typing and thinking that we're getting social satisfaction. I learned that I succumbed to the internet because I'm basically too lazy to go out there and meet real people. Now days, where do you go to meet new people? No one seems to have a clue.

The online thing does help you in the immediate sense. It makes you preoccupied with something. But long-term I think it is bad because you become addicted and lose the ability, not to mention the desire, to talk to REAL people. I used to consider people I met online my friends, but I realized how young and naive I was.

Not necessarily. ><

For me, the internet actually has a dichotomy of effects in regards to loneliness. One one hand, it can help distract one from the realization that they're lonely (and thus, they're not lonely so long as they're fully distracted). However, for me personally, whenever I go on Facebook (or even Myspace), I see all the abundance of social networking and feel fairly excluded and isolated. Though, of course, a good portion of this social networking is just through the internet and not in real life, so it kind of sends mixed signals. ><

Going on facebook and myspace is truly depressing. Seeing people writing on walls and posting pictures of each other at parties just makes me feel so low so I don't even look anymore. I'd rather just imagine that they didn't exist. I just think it's stupid when people add people to their friends list even though they only know them through the internet, making it look like they have tons of friends when they really don't. It's just so superficial to me. If someone who I don't know tries to add me I either ignore it or decline.

Going back to your labels argument, I can be a totally different person online than I am in real life. Online, I have no inhibitions and I can make a girl like me really easily. That's why more of my dates were with people I met online. But in reality, I get so shy because of my looks that I never end up approaching the girls I want to talk to.

I totally agree with this. I think the internet can be a great facilitator to find people, but ideally the internet friendship should be transferred to real life. I've read this somewhere, but it's also been my personal experience.
And, somehow, I don't think it's possible to make real (REAL, GOOD) friends just through typing. If a face-to-face is not an option, I would at least try VoIP...

after reading all of these other posts i have 2 say that it really depends on the person
4 some it might not b. & 4 others it is
i believe its definitely possible 2 make real good friends online
y do i believe that?... bcuz i have. i have friends that ive known 4 yrs. who have done things 4 me that no "real life" friend ever has. & theyre not going anywhere either. were there 4 each other
i dont need biochemical reactions LoL 2 know theres a human being on the other side of the screen typing
lets not even mention how many cpls i know who met online. in fact 2 of my "online" friends just got married a couple of weeks ago


onlines what we make it
if we want 2 make it a fantasy world... its a fantasy world
if we want it 2 b part of our real lives... its part of our real lives

No it can't, but it's helped alot, it was something I turned to when I moved around alot,(7 times LOL) but I've found all the answers I need from the Internet, now it's time to put it all into action and build up my life style, which I'm doing DAILY.

I have some friends in my everyday life, but they're not the kind of people that I can talk to at 3am when I'm feeling a little blue or lonely. None of them have ever suffered from depression or loneliness in the way I do, and I'm very glad to have found a bunch of people that not only know what I'm going through but will talk honestly and freely. I think the people you meet online can help you build that confidence, can give you advice and support etc.

Agreed. Facebook is GREAT if you're very popular because it makes you feel even better about yourself - look, I have tons of friends and I'm doing so well in my school/career, I'm so special! But if you don't have a lotta friends it makes you feel shitty.