Virtual vs. Real Life Friends
43% of people regard their online friends just as important as their friends in real life, perhaps a sign that the distinction between virtual life and real life is getting blurred.
Sixteen years since its inception, the influence of the World Wide Web has permeated virtually every aspect of life—the ways we shop, learn, listen to music, and even the way we meet new people. Being online has become such a normal part of life that relationships in online communities have as much meaning as close relationships with real-life friends, as 43% of surveyed respondents attest. This was the result of the study by the 2007 Digital Future Project of the Annenberg School, University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The survey was taken among 2,000 people across the United States, whom the Digital Future Project contacts annually since the year 2000, to measure trends and shifts in the Internet habits of the populace. The same survey reveals that more than half of Internet users, 56.6%, are members of an online community who keep in touch with their community at least once every day. Contact is maintained through the widespread use of social networking sites, blogs, discussion forums, and instant messaging.
Psychologists attribute the emergence of tight-knit online friendships to the relative ease of communication on the Internet, and a condition which is called in psychological terms, 'disinhibitation'. As the term suggests, one's inhibitions are lowered, a common occurrence on the Web, because people hide behind a mask of anonymity. People tend to feel more at ease as they reveal more intimate details about themselves. An ordinarily shy person has a way of meeting people that does not require eye contact. Keeping in touch with an online community enables one to develop social skills such as empathy and self-expression. The Internet is just another way to network and meet others.
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