Define friendship.

What is friendship? To have common interests? To laugh and have fun together? To know each others deepest secrets? To trust each other?

The reason I'm asking this is because there is still people who are narrowminded about friendship over the internet. To me friendship over the internet is no difference from friendship outside the internet, apart from one thing. You cant just call someone up and come over for a coffee all of a sudden, but thats it.

Some might argue that making friends over the internet is not safe, because you cant know what kind of person he or she is. But thats just the same in the real world too isnt it? Just because you meet a person in a bar, on a party or on the beach doesnt mean that you can tell exactly what kind of person he or she is, can you? The person you met on the beach that seems like a very nice guy can still be a serial killer for all you know, it's not like he gonna tell you this just because you met on the beach and not on the internet.

Some of the best friends I have, I have never met face to face. And maybe I never will get the chance to meet them. But still when I talk to them online we have fun and laugh together, we talk about our lifes and dreams. Are they less friends just because we cant have a sporadic BBQ evening together?

The world is no longer a big and scary place, its only limits are what you want it to be. Ten or so years ago if you wanted to speak to someone on the other side of the world you had to use a phone, and pay huge phone bills for it. Today its practically free. Even if I should choose to use the phone to call my friends on the other side of the world today, it actually cost me less per minute to call them than what it would cost me to call my friend who lives in the next house.

So why do people still make such a big deal out of it when you say you have good friends on the other side of the world? The distans in such friendship is nothing more than a small inconvenience. And technically I can have a coffee with either one of my friends, with the use of headset and webcam its no big difference really.

Welcome to the 21st century.