Are online relationships real?

"have met each other three times and have amazing chemistry"

I would say that is what makes it real. Without that, I'd doubt it could be real but you never know.

Sounds real, to me.... "have spoke on the phone every day for nearly a year and have met each other three times and have amazing chemistry and plan to move over to the others place eventually but will take another year, is that real? "

Lots of "couples" who live a lot closer, don't have the level if interaction, that you 2 seem to have.

Y'all should stay in the same area separately for a bit to see if you REALLY jive. That's just my opinion though.

If you have met in person and keep in touch, yes. That is a long distance relationship

Internet relationships are only fake because at the end of the day, you can turn off your electronics and it is as if that person doesn't exist. If you have physically met the internet person, that is different. Internet relationships without contact is like having small talk conversations with a co-worker who you dont talk to outside of work.

I often say you don’t ever know a person till you live with them

Real.

If you've met then yes. If not, no.
Of course you can develop emotions for someone you haven't met but it's not real until you've actually met.

If you actually meet irl like the example you described then yes. But if you have never met in person I wouldn't consider that a "real" relationship.

First, it seems to me that if you meet someone you've had an online relationship with and you continue to communicate online, you're no longer in an online relationship; you're in a long-distance relationship.

It seems to me that the problem with strictly online relationships is that various psychological quirks can make them appear to be much more serious than they really are.

I think the "realness" of an online relationship depends on the length of time it has gone on and the quality of the communication. By quality, I mean not just the frequency and length of individual conversations, but the range of things discussed and the emotional depth - in particular, how honest the people are about their true feelings and revealing who they truly are and the number of times they've had to resolve disagreements.

The medium used for communication is also important.

Exchanging a few text messages every day for a year with some random person might lead you to believe you understand who they are, but you can't trust that feeling. The medium makes it easy for people to present a false persona. Also, we're all capable of taking a small amount of information about someone, leaping to a completely unjustified conclusion and seeing them as we want to see them, not as they actually are.

The opposite extreme would be a year of hours-long video calls every day supplemented with random texts and non-video chats. That sort of online relationship would probably result in the people experiencing each other in all sorts of moods, and the fact they could see each other would permit most of the usual non-verbal communication cues to come into play. The sheer amount of time spent talking to each other would allow them to get to know a lot about their past and current lives, how they each deal with life's challenges, what they aspire to, and so on. If it progressed to video-sex, that could result in even greater honesty and a better understanding of each other.

Finally, something no strictly online relationship will ever allow is the use of our sense of smell. That's actually pretty important when it comes to choosing a mate, although most people aren't consciously aware of it. I'm sure it would be possible to develop a deep, totally honest and emotionally complex relationship with someone online, only to discover when you actually meet that there's just something "off" about them. That could be because you see things in real life you'll never get online, but it could be because they smell "wrong", and I don't mean that they stink because their personal hygiene is poor.

I think it's becoming more real in this day and age. A lot of my friends have made long lasting relationships that have even resulted in marriage when they've met online first.

For sure. If you had no intention of ever meeting or living together, not so much.

People who claim if it was real, you'd have made the move already, don't understand just picking up your life and moving it somewhere else isn't a simple task.

I met my boyfriend/fiance/whatever online. We see each other once a year for a month or three (depending on what I can wrangle). We are in contact daily. We have had long term plans for me to move to him, but it's not as simple as I just up and moving.

It's hard being in a long term long distance relationship. Good luck with it.

You have something to build on so why not just stick with it? As long as it's not some Nigerian prince which you have met each other so all is well

They will never work out. Dating over the internet is never a good idea unless you have the means/funds to meet them in person.

Yes.

I dont think they are personally because you never know what they could be up to irl. Same with long distance, if you have the trust then that's great but if not its complete horseshit.

I think it depends on the relationship. Not all online relationships are the same.

Remember that results will be skewed since this is an online forum where people think online is a more essential part of life than many other people