Really excellent questions!

Do you think virtual friends are as good as real life friends?

Somewhat different. Hard to say whether I prefer online or real life. It's certainly more convenient this way. If what you do is discuss ideas then physical location is irrelevant. My ten-year-old daughter has a friend in Michigan (another girl her age) she talks to nearly on a daily basis. It's very unlikely they'll ever meet unless she comes to the States as an exchange student when she's older. They seem to get along much better than my daughter gets along with most of her classmates. She does have a couple of real life friends here but they don't see eye to eye like she and her online fried do. In some ways, online friends can be better than real life friends because in real life you're limited by geography.

Are real life friends very important to you?

Other Steemians are a huge part of my social life apart from family and the handful of real life friends I meet more or less sporadically.

Do you find having kids takes away time available for friends in real life?

Absolutely. Kids, small kids in particular, are a huge time sink. I'm not saying this to disparage kids or having them but that's just the way it is.

You know the Old Guy always loves the interaction, so thanks in advance!

You asked some really good questions this time.