andamu

As they traveled and I traveled, some of us got to meet face to face. The only constant about these events is that you never know what it is going to be like. Some people's personalities are exactly the way you perceived them to be online, others have a shadow of themselves present, and still others are completely different.
Some people that you have been talking with for hours on end online you barely have two words to say to when you meet in real life, with others who were the online equivalent of nodding acquaintances you get along like a house on fire.

Having been securely hooked on an Internet life to the extent where most of the people online became more real than people next to me, I know the dangers of becoming too immersed in the online world. But the question remains: is online life any less real than "reality?"

Each of us wears a mask - or even many different masks - every day in our dealings with people in the physical work. Do the distance and the medium really make that much difference? (Note that I am not talking about predators or dating here, where misrepresentation has ulterior motives and potentially dangerous results.)

The next question is whether it is a good idea to meet an online friend face to face. It is a given that at least in some ways they will be different than what you expected - will this difference irrevocably color (and harm) your online friendship?
I know that I frequently wish to know more about authors when I read their books, but also that I am frequently disappointed and sometimes even put off if I find out too much about them; not so much in terms of biographical detail, but rather when they speak in their own voice. Their human pettiness, small concerns and views opposing my own on issues important to me can ruin my enjoyment of their prose.

Nevertheless, I am slowly starting to meet the people behind the blogs. My recent experience was a good one: she was not exactly as I had pictured her (personality-wise), but then again she wasn't too much different either.

Unfortunately her experience of me must have been somewhere along the lines of "Oh my goodness, doesn't this woman ever shut up? And how much longer is she still going to keep pointing the camera at yet another flower or fountain or something?"

Aah well... I guess I'll just have to keep reading her blog.