Is it OK to love the people you meet on the internet?

Yes it is OK to love those that have become your on line family...

I love you too ((((Gazpacho))))

As a wise man once said you can't choose your biological family but you can choose your friends...& I am very happy with the friends I have found on line that I have chosen to be my family.

I agree with what you've said and share in the similarities of it, I have shared more with you then I have with any family even more then I have shared with my spouse.

Sure I have vented in some of my responses and questions and trust me it has been very therapeutic and I have loved the anonymousness of it all...

But with you I have shared openly, I have shared so many things from my past that I am ashamed of and though I don't know you in person I want to meet you someday and even with this knowledge in mind I am not afraid to show you my real self inside & out past & present because you give to me a sense of security and love that is felt by few and yearned by many and for that I love respect and honor you (((Icy)))

No words can describe fully what it is I feel for you but I am grateful to have you in my life and so honored to be your friend. Thank you for sharing your feelings especially for doing it so openly...

You have made me cry many times with your beautiful soul, loving words and caring ways and here I am again wetting my keyboard with tears of pride & joy...you are so loved Gaz

Indeed I have found many I love, love is not limited. The mind is important and a place that needs love as much as the heart and body. My many friends help me to share who I am and keep much of what is vital in me from dying, some of them you've named , but I'd be remiss of I failed to mention enki, Psychic Cat and Dragon (the real one), T.D. Euwaite, Death from Above, Soulshine, Moon, K, Cinnamon, Patzky, and countless others both old and new around the world, each of whom I love in a very special way almost impossible to communicate. Each has given me life and Joy.

Icy, what a truly beautiful poem you have written. It has made me cry sitting here at my desk because I am suffering profoundly due to the loss of a friend that I met here on Y/A.

I have never in my life met the quality of people that I have encountered here. Sometimes I read in silence and feel kindred emotions with a lot of folks on here even though I've never emailed them or anything. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Hi,

The answers you have received are as beautiful, heart-warming and touching as your question (expressive verse). We reach out and now through the links we’ve made in answers, there is someone there. Anonymous perhaps but so very real and tangible in the form of mind-meeting-mind, spirit-connecting-with-spirit, souls with souls. No preconceived notions that appearance can induce, we’ve found a way to reach straight into minds and hearts and for our own hearts to reach out to others. No expectations other than a distant-friendship that can be accessed instantly from our home. This is so very new, to me, perhaps to you. The concept of building internet relationships and the ability to perhaps expose myself more than I would to my everyday friends. To ask questions, touch issues they may not perhaps understand. To just ‘know’ there is someone ‘there’ and those ‘someones’ I now feel I know so well. I love my contacts, some are really very special people and I love and appreciate what they’re willing to share with me. Thank you for giving us the chance to say ‘thank you’!

Pollyanna

I've used this before in one of my Answers, and I've written it from the bottom of my heart. When I saw your poem, I feel that I must share it here, once more...

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My Invisible Friends.

To all my friends I’ve never seen

and I may possibly never meet

Those whose hands I may never grip

and whose voices too remote to hear

Though distance divide and may never bridge

Forever hidden behind this veiling screen

Here we meet on the virtual highways

between crossroads that remain unseen

Yet I know it when you wake

and I know it as you sleep

Here I would wait when you’re away

even when I wish it that you stay

The bond that we have, as others do not

Insignificant to some, unreal to most

Yet here we feast on an intellectual repast

Like great old friends of schooldays past

But there are times as I truly wish

That this screen is one day gone

So I may see your smile and extend my reach

To the hands I would find beyond…

An Internet Friend, always I am

For you, my invisible one…

And who's to say friends cannot love?

No matter the distance,

No matter the form.....

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I've modified this, here and there, from the original one to suit the question at hand. And yes, I believe there is nothing wrong in loving an invisible face, yet so familiar in spiritual essence.

Although I've only known you recently, I've come to know and see you as a nice and sincere person, even from behind this Screen. It truly is an honor, to meet you.

I wish you well, Gaz!

Beautifully stated, poetic & with sincere feeling.

I love: Sensitivity, warmth, commonality, trust, respect, civility, understanding, nonjudgmental, caring, humour, openness, sharing, wisdom, logic, communication.

Why would I not love such friends I have made on the internet?

I look into their eyes through their words. We touch each other as reaching our hands across distances. I learn to know their hearts & minds. We enrich each other.

I would recognize them without avatars or nicknames from the way they think, feel, & express themselves.

How "could" I not love them?

My special internet friends are from many countries, of many ages; retired, students, professionals in various fields, different sexes & genders. The tapestry of this wonderful community is the total colour spectrum--a range far greater than the one in which I literally live. I'm always here if they need reinforcement & know they would be here for me. I'm concerned if they are ill, or in conflict & think of them daily.

I love them.

We have a "magic" world, & I would never hesitate to tell them I love them.

Edit: Randy--Our capacity for love isn't finite. We have room for many kinds of love, without minimiizing one for another.

Interesting poem. Yes, I believe it's possible to love someone you've only "met" on the Internet AS A PERSON. Religion generally requires us to love our neighbor, and the 'net just opens up the neighborhood a bit. You can certainly care about someone you've never met in person by what they write and what they tell you. It's happened to me several times. Good luck!

sure you are able to my boyfriend and that i met in a yahoo chat room and function been mutually for 4 yrs..we met after 6months on the information superhighway and function been mutually because of the fact..he's interior the army so a protracted distance relationship is all we've ever had..even nevertheless it somewhat is possible to truly fall in love!

More than OK, it is beautiful. Who is ever worse off for having loved and been loved in the way you so sweetly described? Many of us are able to share secrets that have haunted is since childhood, because of finding a few good friends that do not judge or try to control, just simply offer unconditional acceptance for who we are.

Be careful, lest you find your homecourt an empty nest.

To have love, respect and proper attention for "your loved ones at home," leaves limited room for those on the Internet.

It is okay to love, respect, and develop a relationship on the Internet, but never to the point of minimizing what it at home.

To have intimacy on the Internet and not at home, to share secrets and dreams on the Internet and not at home, that is wrong on several levels.