What's the point? I ask because I've been monitoring my brother's "Internet activities" on my laptop, that he shares with me, and I could tell he only talks to people from different parts of the world, and I'm asking myself, "Why is he talking to them?" One day, I felt like disconnecting my Internet router, that I payed monthly for, for the night and my brother, that has autism (sorry if that was unnecessary), got so pissed off at me because he can't talk to these online friends of his that he won't ever meet in his lifetime. It gotten so bad that he even threw our laptop in the ground, that still works, and he start screaming at walls and other freaky sh*t. I mean, come on, the chances of him meeting any of them is slim to none. Half of his friends don't even know the real him except he made up stories about his life to their friends about how he went to the army (though all he does is sit on his ass and stay on the computer all day), and these are people that lives 12 hours ahead of him (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc) which is probably why he stays up late all the freaking time. >.<

The question is (again): what's the point of having online friends when you could get friends in person? It just seems silly to me. I know half of you are going to call me a hypocrite because I'm asking this question on an online community (GameSpot), but I don't talk to anybody here - other than asking questions on here - while my brother talks to random strangers all over the world on freaking Facebook.

@mystic_knight: So, in other words, if I use an texting application - such as Facebook Messenger and LINE (that I could verify my phone number with) - it only collects data from me? I noticed that all those apps, including some game apps, only take a few megabytes out of my data. Although I heard WhatsApp could take 2 gigs if you receive tons of pictures, videos, message mail, etc etc.. which isn't bad considering I have 15 gigs of data to use, which is a lot of data for me to use. So, I'm basically fine? It only affects me if I text or call an international number without a texting app? If so, this shouldn't affect me, I don't think.

I'm understanding it a bit better now, thankfully.

I've been talking to my international friends (Thailand and Malaysia) on the free "LINE" app on 4G LTE (cellular network) throughout the month, so that means AT&T won't charge me for it? I'm still new to this so.

I have a unlimited texting & unlimited calling plan with AT&T (in US) for my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and I know I'd get charged for texting my friends internationally (text or call an international number), which is dumb as hell. The thing is: I have a friend that lives in Thailand and also another friend that lives in Malaysia (both are International countries) and I was wondering: is it free to text my International friends on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or even LINE on my Note 3? Even with 4G LTE? I don't have Internet at my place at the moment (not until Sunday) so I have to rely on 4G LTE to talk to my international or US friends on Facebook Messenger or LINE (or WhatsApp) with 4G LTE for a few days. So I hope, hope, hope I don't get charged for texting my friend through an app on 4G LTE (that would be nonsense!).

Edit: I also only have 15 gigs of data to use through cellular (4G LTE), which is a lot for me, since I don't use much of it (at least until my Internet comes here Sunday).