Hi! Howdy?

In the context of blogging we often hear of people leaving comments on your blog for the sole reason that they want you to comment on their blog too. You scratch my back I scratch yours. This phenomenon seems harmless when restricted to comments on blogs. However, a lot of friendships developed over the internet seem to work on the same principle.

These friendships, hereafter referred to as net friendships, usually start either through a chat room, blogs or one of the social network sites like Orkut. They are characterized by almost daily contact between the two individuals over chats, mails and telephone. Actual meetings between the two individuals are rare. What really makes a net friendship appealing?

The answers seem obvious. Each one of us has a desire within us to share our lives with somebody, to have someone we can express ourselves freely to and very importantly, to be able to do this without fear of the other person using it to his/her advantage. Conventional forms of friendship fail to fulfill this requirement. Siblings, colleagues, friends from school/college- with every single one of them there exists a conflict of interest. Invariably, there is that one common thing that both of them would be vying for and it leads to mistrust between the individuals. Waiting for that one special person to come along isn't a very attractive option either (not sure if there doesn't exist a conflict of interest there).

Net friendships, on the other hand, give you the space to speak your mind. Be yourself. You don't need to put up appearances. There exists no conflict of interest. People can share their most personal thoughts. Another reason is that the usual parameters of judging a person don't apply. Physical appearance, personality, habits, etc. are conveniently ignored. It is possible that a person befriends another person online whom he wouldn't have liked to be seen with or associated with in real life. Hence, people end up having (best) friends, brothers and sisters whom they believe they truly love even though they usually have a conveniently formed selective perception of the other person. A perception that consists of only the good in the other person.

These friendships might and even tend to develop to an extent where they create a dependence on the other person since they satisfy a very basic psychological need of people. Ignoring the possibilities of criminal intent, one person being more serious than the other and true love, Are these friendships healthy?