Online vs. Real Life

I watched this very?? Strange documentary on Netflix recently. It was about a website/virtual world called Second Life. The documentary itself focused mostly on several different users of the program and how it affected their lives. It made me think about some of my own friends who I only keep in touch with online, whether or not I've met them. I wanted to write this post to clarify that there is no difference between the friends you know and see mostly in real life, and the ones you only talk to through the computer, other than physical things and being honest. I've never had problems personally with online friends lying to me so I don't know too much about that. Most of my online friends I met first in real life. However, the fact that I can talk to them more often and about things we all have in common is incredibly important to me. Having someone to talk to is great, and if that person is online it doesn't make them less of a person to talk to. It makes them a different kind of person to talk to. I feel like it's easier to be open with people online, you don't have to worry about seeing them, or seeing their true physical reactions. It can be really reassuring. However, it can of course also cause a lot of different problems with not knowing how someone feels about something, as well as being an opening to an opening to online bullying. All in all, I think what I want anyone to take away from this, is to know that people with online friends, aren't really weird, they just have a different way of making friends.