Surprisingly, I found more real friends in the Internet than IRL. This is what's needed to know about "offline makes connections more authentic".
Discussion
I've found quite a few friends on the Internet, but they became what I consider friends IRL (long discussions in person, helping eachother with IRL stuff). Do you distinguish between finding friends and forging friendships?
Same. I only consider someone a friend if there is mutual help and relevant support for significantly long time. Until that I don't find a friend, just know someone. I also have few friends, but mostly I've firstly met them in the Internet. Then meeting in IRL, then going back to distances. But still friends though physically distributed (which is better I think).