"To what extent do relationships that are formed online and remain virtual differ from ones that are formed as a result of meeting in person?"
This is a very interesting question and one that I have a lot of experience with. The phenomenon of "internet friends" is in no way a new concept, and I would even go so far as to say it is one that is fading away.
10+ years ago, well before "web 2.0" was a thing, the internet was a much more mysterious and experimental place. People were using web forums, online chat rooms, gaming, using IRC to chat, share files, and share a lot of not-quite-legal information with one-another, and online dating was still in development. The fact that people could connect with someone across the globe and talk about something they had in common was still exciting and new to many people. That glow, I fear, has faded. Today the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, any time is pretty much a given. Social media is the dominant way that we communicate with one another, and most of those people are within our circle of friends.
This is not to say that people aren't meeting others online anymore. Forums are still active, online dating is huge, and chat rooms still exist. From my experience, however, it is just not the same.
That being said, I feel that for many people "online friends" and "real life friends" are different for everyone. There are groups of people out there who consider their online friends to be true friends. Taking World of Warcraft as an example, the guilds people create often have very tight bonds and these people sometimes share every detail of their lives with one another. They become very close and in many ways may even be closer than their "real life friends". Some, however, form relationships with people in chat rooms and forums that are strictly professional, or just people that they chat with to have fun and may never think about them otherwise.
In my own life, I have met many people online who later became my real life friends. I even met girls I dated through the internet when I was younger. Meeting someone through the internet was exciting because it meant you could talk to someone who lived an hour away that you may otherwise never meet in person and then connect in real life. One of my first girlfriends (a girl who lived 45 minutes from me) was met this way, and we still talk to this day even though she now lives across the country.
I also have had a number of friendships that were maintained solely online through various message boards, games, and things of this nature. I never made that deep connection with these people like some do - it was always just chatting about whatever hobby or game we were interested in. I think that this type of friendship is pretty interesting because it is almost like a specialized friendship or even a business partnership. You serve a mutually beneficial, and quite specific, purpose to one another and that is what maintains your relationship.
Ultimately I think what I said in the beginning - that this is different for everyone - is the real answer. It is all about how you think about people and how much you let them into your life. Either way, though, it is a very interesting topic and there are surely a million different opinions and likely a ton of research done on it.
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