Being On-Line

I was thinking a lot today about on-line friendships.  I have many on-line friends, and a few I've had for years.  There are even one or two that I've gotten to know well, shared a lot with and maybe one day, we will meet in real life.  I wonder if we were to meet, would it be the same? I accept that may never happen, but with these one or two, yes, I think it would be a lot the same.  Then, I also think that for all the messages and hugs and support from friends on-line that if we had just met in real life, maybe we would have never even taken the chance to become friends.  To me, the truth is, we are all different on-line.  Even those of us who are very upfront and honest about who we are, it is a different forum and a different dynamic.  We are safer here and behind the screen.  Most on-line friends don't know that I curse like a sailor, that I hate getting dressed (and even my dressing up is in the most comfortable option available), my political views, or a lot of my various flaws or virtues - they just don't come up that often in the on-line world.  Here, you don't really know what I look like, how I sound and even if you really, really like me here, I might really scare you in real life - who knows?  I read an article not too long ago that was saying how many people that we pass by all the time that we might really like, if we got passed the first surface glance - how many times our immediate reaction is "what's up with her hair?" or "her voice is deep for a woman" (and all those first reactions that fly through our brains) and so we just go on by without even attempting to know the person.  I sometimes think that out of all my on-line friends, that in real life, most of them would just pass on by.
That's the end of my random, rambling thoughts for tonight....