I agree with Zooey - internet friends don't take the place of live friends. But for some, the lack of reward in internet friendships is balanced by the lesser consequence of failure. Dealing with people face-to-face is multi-layered and multi-dimensional. By that, I mean that there are many aspects involved: maintaining eye contact, keeping the conversation going at a good pace, the tone of voice and other things that really can't be expressed as a quantity. This requires energy and much more attention to your surroundings and the person you are dealing with, even in the most casual way. On-line relationships, especially in a chat situation, are more one-dimensional. We are writing and reading, with no tones or visual contact. A minute of silence in a chat room is tolerated. In person, it would be considered an intolerably awkward silence.

The bad reason might be because it's easy, we're lazy. The good reason is that it's a way of reaching people across the world that I'd never get a chance to hear from otherwise. Friends on the net are a good thing, but they shouldn't take the place of friends in real life. Real life always comes first!

Because on the net we can find people from all over the world and share cultures, languages, and others different things that we don't do with our friends in life every day, and I think this is real life too ... I knew a Dutch guy here in this page, for example, and later we had the chance to meet each other in person, when he came to Argentina and visited me... ^^

because it would be strange if some stranger on the steets suddenly talks to you and say they want to be your friend. on the internet, it is ok to talk to strangers.

Although I have a lot of friends in my real life, I have not many net friends. I would like to find the many different things between net friends and real life friends. These includes but not limit to: culture, speaking style, idea & opinion, etc.