Cyber chums matter just as much

Virtual buddies are becoming as important as 'real life' chums to many an internet user, research from the Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California's (USC) revealed.

Over two-fifths (43 per cent) of members of online communities said they "feel as strongly" about their virtual friends as they do real world communities.

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An average internet user has 4.65 friends online whom they have never met in person and 1.6 friends they've met in person after originally encountering them online.

Cyber chit-chat is also on the up with the number of bloggers more than doubling in the past three years.

Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, said we are now witnessing the true emergence of the internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon many thought it would become.

The survey of over 2,000 people forms part of a six-year study into attitudes to the internet.