A long-distance relationship is like this:  
Someone, through a phone screen, does something to your heart that the people physically closer to you couldn't. Someone miles away calms you and pays attention to you in a way no one else does. Someone you've never met loves you and cares for you so much that the people right next to you seem like they never really saw you or had your back.  
An online relationship means I seek refuge from the useless people around me in a place where I can find someone, fall in love with them, miss them without ever seeing them, without ever holding their hand, without ever hugging them.  
An online relationship means someone from the other side of the world has made me forget about all the people around me, and that person is worth waiting for—no matter how long, no matter how late, I'll wait to see them. (: