I think I have met around 100 internet acquaintances in person. I am not sure how I feel about this. The lines have definitely gotten more blurry over the years with reagrds to online versus offline. Does internet lit reflect this? My sociology of new media course was slightly frustrating in this when there were masters (masters!) degree candidates spend half an hour in a chat room and declaring the same silly things one read about "the internet" ten years earlier.

On the other hand, internet community participants half the time seem to have no knowledge of this stuff so when you bring ideas of community, there are cries of "this isn't a community!" and maybe yes maybe no.

I have my suspicions that reality isn't necessarily reflected in the research. My gut feeling is that a majority of people use email to communicate with people they already know. See also the women are buying more music than men, but why is music discourse so malecentric? (Unless you're a Riot Grrl. But that has been supplanted my 'dance music' as the genre academia would have had to invent if it didn't already exist)

(Am I spelling already correctly? All ready already all though although, I swear that 2nd grade spelling book fucked me up forever in confusing them!)