J's Word of the Week: Nebulous.

Mine?? Internet Schizophrenia

At first, I thought it was just me. I would meet or interact with someone online and get what I thought was a pretty clear impression of their personality. Then I would meet them in person (no, not on a dating basis), and everything was different: how they related to other people, how they related to me, their mannerisms, etc.

Like I said, I thought it was just me and my ability, or lack thereof, to judge people. But I have discovered, through conversations with other friends who maintain online and offline lives that I am familiar with, that they have had the same experience.

Not that there's anything wrong with this. Some people are better (whatever that means) in writing than they are in person. There's a level of remove in print that is hard to maintain in person, and people might take advantage of it to express facets of themselves that they're really not comfortable expressing face-to-face. That's the wonder of the internet.

I'm just relieved that it's not my mistake, that I don't have to doubt myself when it comes to online first impressions vs. offline first impressions anymore.

Just so you know, this is how I really am. Just ask J or D or M or the other J. They'll tell you.