Cimorene

Yes, that is a nice thing about internet friends! Although for me the main benefit is, I think, the ability to select for actual things in common, as opposed to geographical proximity. I doubt I could even relate seriously to close friends who weren't in fandom in some way. I probably on the whole have more passive, one-way interactions on the internet (reading feeds and reading lists and the like) than actual conversations and exchanges, and internet acquaintances are even more dramatically superior to meatspace ones, I find, because it's quite possible to just avoid them entirely. On a day where I'm anxious or irritable, I don't have to talk to anyone if I don't want to.