Online friendships: Real or virtual?

With the growing popularity of social networking sites like My Space and Facebook, we are witnessing a paradigm shift that may well redefine the nature of friendship, suggests Libby Brooks, an editor with the UK Guardian, in a recent blog post, What’s in a Friendship. She points out a demographic divide: Almost one of every two teenagers has an online profile compared to only one in five adults.

What are your thoughts? Are online friendships qualitatively the same as those off-line? Are they harder or easier to make? Are they richer or more superficial? Are the friendships more fleeting? Are they just as rewarding as the real thing?