I dunno, Neo -- helping you form opinions could be risky -- what if you formulate 'em, then don't like them? Or what if they don't work?

Seriously, I think the events and perceptions that make up reality are self endowed to a very high degree, and that some large portion of "reality" as we know it is our own work. From this perspective the friendships you have here are as real as any friendship, and perhaps in a way more so since they are built from considered steps (all the thought that precedes _some_ of the posts here). Meatspace friendships are built on noisier exchanges, richer with _somatic_ context, but not necessarily richer in emotion except that they are perhaps more complicated -- because the quiet safe space behind your monitor is traded for a noisier, more random, louder and heavier kind of experience.

Another factor is that because of the elegance of the prequalifying that has to occur for a person to end up here they are sure to have a lot in common with you, and a willingness to engage in dialogue. Just think of the number of choices that we have all made similarly to arrive here, starting with 1folk music .

In a sense, there is just as much communication in thehighly filtered exchange of typing on your video scren, such as this, as there is in the eye-to-eye conversation with a girlfriend, say, over coffee. The messaging context and coding system is much, much leaner, with no voice tones and gestures and smells and touches and colors. But to some degree a consensual style evolves to compensate for that. And the fundamental functional map is the same in that one point of life is contriving to signal another through various intermediary mechanisms, with the intention of inducing understanding. Logisticaly cybercommunication is a lot more convenient.

The quality of the friendships are appropriate for the context...meat friends involve deeper and more solid committments, usually.

A