Meeting people online isn't stupid. It's rather common. Be that as it may, it does have its own types of limitations. I'd been online for twenty years before I'd ever met someone from meeting online. The drawback was the distance, 2,000 mile difference, to be exact. Prior I'd conversed much like a pen pal with someone else, about the same distance away. Without the day to day contact, in person it's truly difficult to maintain something of such magnitude in a way that's sustainable and fulfilling. One can care for the individual on the other side of the screen/phone, yet, it's not the same as live and in the flesh.

How'd your parents not realize that you didn't have friends?