This is an interesting topic, and one that I've considered posting about many a time but never did for some reason. I've had a rather interesting experience with cyber friends. For a long time, I was very nervous about meeting someone on the net (with all the horror stories you here on the news about molesters and such) but one day I really wanted to know what goes on in chat rooms (I'd never been in one before this).
I decided to go into one of the many AOL chats and simply lurked about. After a while, with me having said nothing, someone invited me to IM. I decided "Why not?" and began to chat. I found out some about this person. It was a girl, just a couple years younger than me and that we shared many interests. We talked for about 45 minutes and thought we should keep in touch. I thought that would be kind of cool, having an online friend, I'd never had one before and I wanted to see if it would last any length of time.
Well, the night after, I saw her online again and we began talking and things were really starting to click. We talked for about 3 hours or so and by the end of it, she was my girlfriend and I was her boyfriend.
I thought this was rather odd, but I was willing to go through things for awhile at least until I was really sure of this. Over the next week, my feelings began to grow for her, and seemed, hers for me. Unfortuneatly, things took a rather bad turn, she was going to be losing internet access. As could be expected, I was VERY upset, and she seemed to be very much so as well. A few days later, she was offline. I attempted to send an e-mail but AOL said that her sn was no longer registered.
I thought the worst and thought things were over but my feelings remained. I thought it very strange, how could you feel that way over the internet? I hadn't ever met her, I didn't even know what she looked like, and worst of all, she lived 700 miles away from me.
After a month however, I received an e-mail from her! I was VERY excited and immediately e-mailed her back. We talked again over IM and things were, much to my surprise, the same way they were before she lost internet access. I was amazed and slightly confused but I wasn't going to do anything to ruin it.
Our relationship continued on for a total of 3 and a half months. However, due to the distance between us and a lack of transportation between our 2 places, things didn't work out. It's been a little more than a month since our break-up now.
As for my opinion on this topic, I believe that cyber-friends can be just as real as rl friends, in every aspect. There are a few differences though. One, it is much harder to maintain contact when your friendship is online, unless you have a means of getting in contact in rl. Second, in rl, you know who the person you're talking to is (better than you do online at least). Care should definitely be taken when approaching a friendship or romantic relationship online. You have to make sure you know who the person is before giving out any personal information (as Saz suggested, a month is a good amount of time). What I said above is a VERY short version of what went through my head and what happened. A lot more happened but I'm too tired right now to relate it all.
Anyway, that's just my personal experience and my own opinions, I'm sure many people have had experiences much different than what I've had.
-Jafin
edit: I don't talk about this with just anybody, even with some of my rl friends so that shows yet again that cyber-friends can be and are just as real as rl friends.
[This message has been edited by Jafin (edited 07-14-2001).]