50% of Us Have at Least One Online Friend Who We’ve Never Met

There’s been a lot of talk about metaverses, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.  But for now, we’re just REAL people . . . who live in a REAL world . . . who spend a TON of time online.

But . . . we ARE connecting with other real people who we don’t know.

In a new poll, a whopping 50% of Americans say they have a friendship that’s entirely online . . . meaning that they met this person online, communicate with them there, and have never met them in person.

It’s more common for Gen Z (68%) and Millennials (61%) . . . but 40% of Gen X and even 27% of Boomers have at least one online friendship.

When asked how those friendships compare, 26% of people say online friendships are “equally meaningful” to those that exist in real life.  38% say they are less meaningful, but 13% say they’re MORE meaningful.

Younger adults were FAR more likely to consider online friendships more meaningful.  25% of Gen Z said that was true, while just 2% of Boomers agreed.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay