Virtually real or really virtual?

I can remember the time when my *real* friends really got upset to see me spending so much time *connected* with my *virtual* friends.
(see, Jack, I've got inspired by our last chats :P)

I remember the "addiction", "anti-social", "fake", "lies", "manipulation" words linked to the internet chats and forums and whatever linked to relationship.

I've been addicted, like you would be to any kind of game I think.
I've been confronted to lies and manipulation which at the end I found amusing. That allowed me to take distance. Since then, I've decided to trust anybody on the internet. Their lies are not my problem.

But there's one word that is definatly inappropriate to my experience with my internet: *anti-social*.

I can say I've met more people through the internet than in any kind of pubs or kewl bars.
Not all of them have become close friends.
But a few I've known since years (a few others since months) are now completly part of my life.

And when I can finally meet them, then it's the cherry on the cake.
I've almost never had a bad suprise. Friends always corresponded to what I knew from them

In a few days we should meet American/German internet *friends*, next month English ones... and in December...(but chhhhut, that's still a secret)... let's say French-speaking ones (and I can see there a memorable time).

So, the internet being anti-social? No way :)