Saying you’ve met someone “online” or “over the ‘net” has become more commonplace and is losing its nerdy aura. That’s a Good Thing (tm). But there’s still a huge difference between the experiences of meeting someone on the Internet and meeting in person. The interactions are completely different and can leave vastly dissimilar impressions. Will that divergence change as Internet use evolves? Will we be able to have almost the same experience meeting someone online in the future as we do in person? The textual nature of current Internet interactions are protective, comforting, almost indirect. What will happen when voice and video are commonplace as bandwidth increases; will they become commonplace? Will the introverts stick with text and the extroverts happily chat into their cameras and microphones? Or will we all keep hidden behind the convenience of attractive 3D avatars? (Note: this entry has a name tag and can be linked to using #12100)