I'm so sorry about your friend. I know this is a difficult time for you. My condolences.

Sorry for your loss.

I have a lot of friends online who have become my real life friends. So, I do believe that online relationships can be as rich as real world ones, even though one has to accept that not everyone online is real.

My Condolences to you and his family.

As for "online friends". I have many, all are real, and the loss of one is just as bad as if it was a "real life" one. I realised that a week ago when one online friend of me passed away as well.

I met my best friend online. We've visited each others countries, and I'm going back to see her again in February. We e-mail each other every day if we can't chat on MSN, or failing that, send text messages to each other.

People who don't think relationships can exist over the internet are foolish -- relationships are built on communication and interaction, and the internet provides both of those things.

So sorry about your loss.

Man,  so sorry to hear that.

There's a few people that I email once in a while,  and I consider them real friendships.  I feel I've come to know and it would hurt to lose them.   I DO have to wonder how they feel,  ya know?  do they care whether or not I'm still around. 

 

Online relationships are very real. Loosing a friend is hard, but remeber the great person that he was.

there are fools, and then there are friends, and online, or in person, it is the interaction and friendship that makes it real.

I do think they are real, it's no different than pen pals, or phone friends. It's just through a different medium.

I've encountered some great people, and have had good friendships.

I send my regards, losing a friend, no matter how you met them, is horrible.

Peace, ~Lucas

Are they real?  How would we here at JU react if we got news that Karen, Brandie or Dr. Guy died?  If I all of the sudden quit blogging, how many people would start to wonder what's wrong.  If any of the regulars we look forward to every day suddenly stopped, with no explanation, how long would it be before those we have contacted outside of JU started digging to find out what happened.

For anyone to say "they aren't real" (as my wife and some others of what my brother calls "meat friends" believe) would be to tell you that you have no right to mourn the loss of Jason, since you weren't really friends anyway.

Once in awhile I hear of the death or tragedy befalling one of my old Army buddies, or a friend I haven't seen in decades.  No one questions my mourning them... however, who is more a part of my life now, my "Cyberbuddies" or the people from my distant passed?

The key difference is that they are not real to those who are "real". You understand the connection but due to the virtual nature of the relationship others in your life have nothing to relate too. I dont think it's malice that sees "meat" friends fail to acknowledge such friendships but rather that they are simply excluded from all aspects of such a relationship. All such a relationship means to them is that "you're" unavailable. For them there are no artifacts of the friendship to make it real to them. In other words online friendships can be very exclusionary in nature.

Sometimes i guess it can be difficult for people to accept that they are in some way being passed over in favor of an "invisible" friend.

How incredibly modern that you met this friend in WoW. My best friends came about as a result of shared experiences though none such as slaying the horde. As online environments become increasingly real it will be interesting to see how social patterns evolve and change. In the meantime a poem for your friend in the wilderness:

To a Friend in the Wilderness:

Old friend, dear friend, some day

when I have had my say and the world its way,

when all that is left is the gathering in of ends,

and the forgathering of friends,

on some autumn evening when the mullet leap

in a sea of silver-grey,

then, O then I will come to you again

and stay as long as I may,

stay till the time for sleep;

gaze at the rock that died before me,

and the sea that lives for ever;

of air and sunlight, frost and wave and cloud,

and all the remembered agony and joy

fashion our shroud.

-- A.R.D. Fairburn

I'm sorry to hear that your friend passed away.

I think what makes this relationship "real" is that you both took the time to meet each other in this world and found that your online "personalities" were aligned with your offline realities. That's real.

There's too many living a virtual life that is either intimacy funneled through an Ethernet cable or some other Internet presence masquerading with all the answers, bravado, and life experience that an online character can muster.

Is what you text what you really get? Get all the wires and keypads out of the way, shake a hand, look someone in the eye, and share some adversity. Then you'll know what's real.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

In responce to Heydre. In the world of online gaming and chat, shaking hands, and sharing adversity do happen, it's just a different way of doing it. I found it hillarious when I went on my first date with a guy I met online. He thought all this bad things, which he well should, even if I met him in a bar, or at Target, or wherever real place.

People are people, bonds are invisible, and freindships are strong, no matter how you meet them or how you maintain it.

My best friend is someone I hooked up with years ago in a sober chatroom, I would not exchange michele {she blogs here once in a while under gimpyone} we have shared all of lifes experences, grief, joy, death, the birth of children, we too phone talk daily and once each year either she comes here to me and colleens home or we go out east to hers. Michele is one of those treasures you find in an unexpected place. Real? as real AS IT GETS.

sorry for your loss.. I do understand losing a friend, it is painful.