Friends on here?

[LadyOnArooftop]

On another thread they were talking about friends on here. It got me thinking, can you regard people you don't meet up with, but only chat to online, as friends? You don't really know who they are, they could be anything... male, female, perverts! I don't have any friends on here. The people I message with are mostly from the chat site that closed in 2018. I've spoken to some of them on the phone, does that elevate it to a friendship? I think fondly of them, but no, it doesn't. Maybe I'm just a cold, aloof person.
Do you have 'friends' on here?

 

[lofacmofah]

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[Shak]

On another thread they were talking about friends on here. It got me thinking, can you regard people you don't meet up with, but only chat to online, as friends? You don't really know who they are, they could be anything... male, female, perverts! I don't have any friends on here. The people I message with are mostly from the chat site that closed in 2018. I've spoken to some of them on the phone, does that elevate it to a friendship? I think fondly of them, but no, it doesn't. Maybe I'm just a cold, aloof person.
Do you have 'friends' on here?

Hello old friend (chuckles)

Long time eh, hope you're keeping well.

I think it rather depends what you require in a friend.
If it's someone to chat nonsense with, to forget your worries for a bit. Then yes you can have chat friends.

If however you require something of slightly more substance, then perhaps not. I think a lot of people use chat to get away from their own troubles, and would not want to be bothered with anyone else's.

My motto is, never take chat too serious and enjoy it for what it is. X

 

[LadyOnArooftop]

Thinking fondly of you, Shak x

 

[A_Son_of_God]

Good point really. I think so. But everything should be defined within the context of how it's used. How about a person who you don't associate with, but used to many decades ago? You may not see them any more, and have no idea what they now do with their life, yet you used to be friends, and still refer to them as friends in conversation.

On a similar point, I was looking at an article on the term "brother", where people call each other "brother", and it was showing how the context applied in a way where the term was fair to call someone a brother, even though in fact, we may not even know the person personally.

Anyway, just an opinion. But yeah, I believe they can still be called friends, as long as the context can be defined if necessary.