A recent study finds that people -- teenagers in particular -- prefer forging and keeping friendships online to doing so in an offline setting. If this doesn't signal that we're living in an almost-purely digital age, I don't know what does. It won't be long before "old school" forms of communication -- writing letters, making phone calls even -- become entirely obsolete. But does this indicate that we, as a society, are becoming more introverted? I don't think so. What it means is that as technology continues to become more advanced, we only become lazier. People want things yesterday. As we become busier, we rely more on technology to get things done as quickly as possible. Buy groceries through Amazon.com and have them delivered to us? Check. Watch movies at home via Netflix without having to set foot in the theater? Check. Set up doctor's appointments online? Done. When it comes to friendships, the internet offers the opportunity to...

As we hit our 30s and 40s, life becomes only more and more complicated. From juggling multiple jobs to maintaining a household and raising children, some of us have little time left over for anything else -- and that especially includes friendships. Thankfully, the internet has made it intuitive not only to keep in touch with people we know in person, but to forge "web" friendships with individuals all over the globe at the push of a button. The question is, can friendships forged in cyberspace be as fulfilling as the in-person kind? To me, it's an emphatic yes. I don't believe that you have to physically be with someone in person to establish a connection with him or her. After all, even after you befriend someone in person -- say, in school or at work -- don't the phone and internet account for a huge chunk of the time you spend talking to one another anyway? I find it's easier to strike conversations online -- and, consequently, go on to forge fri...