Are Real friends real, virtual friends virtual?

The title itself would have made sense to the quandary I m in. Yeah of late, I m acquainted with many virtual friends .Now what does virtual friendship mean? With the increase in number of social networking sites and chat messengers, it has become easy to acquaint with people who you feel are in the same wavelength as you are. You are connected with them 24*7 online. I don’t know if it is the best or the worst thing about virtual friendships, that you hardly get any chance to meet them in your life time as you make friends all over the globe! From my experience, I honestly say that some virtual friends are really trust worthy. You get a chance to share even your silliest of the ideas with them and u feel there is someone who can hear that and even help you out! You always feel you tend to be yourself with them, there is no need for faking or reeling some stories to make them believe you. There comes a time, when u wonder why virtual friends cannot be real ones with whom you can go out for a coffee or a movie? So virtual friends are only virtual??

Let it be there on one side. Coming back to my real friends. So what do I mean by real friends? A one word reply would be “Those people whom I see when I m offline”! Yeah I mean people whom I see in my daily life and acquaint! So what makes real friends a notch higher than your virtual friends? Or is there any reason why they are really worth a notch higher? The very fact that we go out for a movie, hang out with them, can we say real friends are true friends? I doubt. I seriously doubt! Let me throw this question to everyone who is reading this. How many out here are really yourself to your friends? How many of your friends really know the true colour of you? I know almost everyone out here fake, trying to be good for Heavens sake! Does it make sense you are true in your relationship? I have heard this said umpteen time:”We start loving people seeing the best side of them and problems start queuing up when you learn the other side of them too”. This strengthens my statement “Are we true in our relationships”? I feel the main problem in not being open in our real friendship is our old-aged conception about what he will think about me if I tell this and we wear a beautiful mask around an ugly personality. So now, u say real friends are true?? May be a very few!

The best part about virtual friendship is that we start liking someone for the person he really is, without even, having seen him before in his life, without knowing his social status or anything like that. They are innocuous in the sense that their existence hardly affects us! Virtual friends seldom try to harm you. You start feeling good about yourself when you don’t fake and be true to your friend. You feel a sense of relief having shared your grief or shared your happiness. Having heard the term Global village one may still relish the dream of meeting our virtual friends one day, though they are virtual and oceans apart.

The best part of a having a real friend is they help and care for us unconditionally. They celebrate our success, share our sorrows and they love us a lot! Virtual friends can only send a sweet smiley when I say about my success! ;-( It is very easy to meet a real friend at will, speak with him through mobile for hours, but when it comes to virtual friends it is not the same. They have different time zones and when you sleep, they work. It is tough to call and speak for hours, unless your dad pays your mobile bills ;-) I would be harsh on virtual friends who promise a life-long friendship but the harsh reality is that only real friends are here for a lifetime to share, care and love us!!!

Having spoken about the pros and cons of virtual and real friends, I wanna define the main theme of mine here: true friendship..What does it means to me? I feel true friendship is one when you are able to be yourself with the other person, no matter u meet him daily offline or online. Moreover, I don’t think real friends are completely real and virtual friends completely virtual. I have done 12 years of schooling and 4 years of awesome college life. Given the number of people who have studied with me, I must have had a thousand real, true friends by now. But?? ? Yeah..I know I have made many true friends though virtual or real. And if anyone felt guilty or skeptical about yourself while reading this, I wish you change yourself for the good, to be a true friend soon, not just being real or virtual..,! Be yourself! And feel the change!!

Cheers to True Friendship!