I've got digital friends. There, I said it.

It's okay, I think, and on some level it's encouraged too. I mean, really encouraged. Sure, Mike, sure I've known you since I was in second grade, and yeah, I suppose we're friends, but we're not really (I mean really) friends until we're friends on Friendster or Facebook.

This article, as well as, I'm sure, many of you, points out that this is the source of my crushing loneliness. On some level, I guess I disagree on it. Sure, Americans may have less people to confide in, but, in the long run, isn't there some other benefit to keeping in touch with a larger circle of friends, albeit somewhat cursorily? Maybe this is the benefit of such sites as Friendster or Facebook. It takes too long, the energy, seemingly too much, and the heartbreak too great, to realize a distant correspondent is no longer responding, or that you haven't responded to a long-overdue letter. How much easier to pop over to the profile and leave a simple message. Confidants may be overrated.

And for those of you clucking your tongues and shaking your heads: screw all of you, I have digital friends.