To be honest I'm impartial to the whole thing. For friends, I personally find I find alot more friends offline than online; my parents have always kind of been "in" with the whole biker scene locally, and me being an appreciater of rock/metal/biker music myself, I find I'll always fit in and am considered "one of the guys" by most. Sure, I meet friends online that do turn out to be good friends, but I get along with my offline mates alot more. For me, I'd much rather go to a barbeque in a friends back garden, drink a few beers and enjoy myself than sit around all day talking to people I've probably never met before, and probably will never do.
As for dating ... I'm not fussed; I have a few friends who went into the whole net relationship thing, and for them, it worked, and I respect it, but personally I'd much rather go out and find a person and be able to look them in the eyes, hold them etc, than be restricted to just looking at them through a computer screen.
But if it works for a person, then go for it, just make sure you know you trust them first if you plan on having a meet up.