Online friends....

I think it's a fact of life that many people have friends that they have met on-line. In many cases, friends that are only online. I know I personally have several friends like this. Sure, I may have met them one or two times, but because of my schedule, I really don't get to see them that often. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

C was going through match.com this summer and as I've said, she and I still talk a lot and share a lot. We still look out for each other. She would send me lists of people she was thinking about, or those who had contacted her, and I'd give my opinion. One thing that I remember her saying was that she was worried about chatting on line/via email too much with someone. She thought that she should only exchange a few emails before meeting otherwise you can get too familiar too fast, and not having anything really to talk about when you actually meet. At the time I didn't agree with her. I thought that the more information that you have the better it can be.

I've found recently that friends I have met online do know more about me than those I see on a day to day basis. I've opened up more in the past 10 days on here than I have to some of my friends in real life. I have no problem sharing. Why is that? I don't know. Surely I can't be alone in this.

Why is it that it can be so comfortable to talk via IM or via email or via text message? Why is it so easy to share information that way? Why have I let some of my friendships slip?