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.