If there is at least one person on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.
One summer, I met 23 people in real life who I had previously known only via LiveJournal. If it were not for LiveJournal, I would never have met Jess. If it wasn't for IM communications, I probably would have never dated Sarah. I only have a small handful of friends that I didn't meet online first: Aerin and Andrew, a few friends from high school, and Christy, but I think that's all. I'm looking through my AIM buddy list and not seeing many people who my relationship with was not started or encouraged by talking to them online rather than in person.
I think that says something about me, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad ;) I do know that the friends I have now are some of the greatest people around, and I'm really glad to have met all the people I have, and I'm thankful that this online community has allowed me to keep up with so many people I would have otherwise lost contact with.
its interesting how relationships can develop over the internet-- i have a very close, very dear friend, who went to high school with me. but we didn't talk except for online and on AIM until like, one year into our knowing-each-other-ness. its much easier to be yourself when you're rid of the whole anxiety inducing personal-contact shite.
in any case, any meduim that encourages interpersonal interaction (that sounds weird.. let it go, ok? cause im tired and still jetlagged and generally a mess) is good. hopefully we wont all turn into automatons.
except for the whole 'access to' issue , i think the internet is a great leveling agent when it comes to social, and etc. communication. everyone is on the same page, same level, get to know a lot more ppl, etc...
we have definetely taken advantage of it!