People call a lot of things relationships. It doesn't make sense to me a lot of the time. Even relationships that are real or considered that by the masses are questionable by some too. Specifically (and I hope he doesnt ever see this), the person FlyingTim brought up graduated from a religious high school one year early, and opted to live in his parents basement online instead of going to college (he is now attending tech school though). Now a year later, he was talking about a girlfriend on a channel I idle in. It came out that she was almost 40 years old and lived in Maine. He almost spent his savings to fly out to visit her. I have no idea what the status is now (i heard all of this last fall).
Before I comment on the above, I want to comment on how the idea of 'recent' changes over time. Weeks and months pass so fast, my idea of a 'recent event' can be several months in the past. It is now February, and New Years feels like a few days ago. I cycle though, sometimes (like in August or September) I feel like days are years.
Back to the online relationship thing.. it is not something that comes up really. I can't remember anybody else besides this kid having one like that. You'd hear about it in movies and in magazines more than in regular life.