Though I can't share a personal story about my own involvement, I could see this story being true. With many people have more online friends than face-to-face friends, this story could easily be true, plus there are some more interesting facts included in the article, especially one about women specifically.

From the article:

A large number of Internet users feel as strongly about their virtual worlds as they do about the real world, a new study shows.

That's just one of many wide-ranging findings published by the University of Southern California-Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. The sixth annual study of the impact of the Internet on America shows that online communities are becoming key components of many people's lives, that more women are online than ever before, and that more people are using the Internet at work for non-work activities.

One of the findings shows that 43% of Internet users who are members of online communities say they feel as strongly about their virtual community as they do about their real-world communities.

"More than a decade after the portals of the Worldwide Web opened to the public, we are now witnessing the true emergence of the Internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon we knew it would become," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC-Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. "In 2006, we are beginning to measure real growth and discover new directions for the Internet as a comprehensive tool that Americans are using to touch the world."

The study, which surveyed more than 2,000 people across the United States, shows that people are so engaged in online groups and communities that it's affecting how they act in the real world. More than one-fifth of online community members (20.3%) take related actions offline at least once a year. And almost two-thirds of online community members who participate in social causes through the Internet (64.9%) say they are involved in causes that were new to them when they went online. The study also shows that 49% participate more in social activism since they became involved in online communities.

-- In 2006, for the first time, the percentage of women online was higher than the number of men

Read the full article over at yahoo.com