Week 7:1 cyberspace friendships

I personally am not one to build a friendship solely off online interactions. I definately have friends which I maintain our friendships through online interactions, but all have originated as face to face relationships. Online relationships have the nice advantage of being anonymous. I find that in cyberspace there is the opportunity to be anything you want to be. You don't have to reveal what you look like, where you live, or what you do in real life. Which is the reason I do not have friendships which exist exclusively in cyberspace. I like knowing who I am friends with. If I am going to open up to someone or share personal information, it will be with someone I know f2f. I am nervous to be open with an online contact if I have never met them in person, because I am unsure of what their true intentions are in communicating with me. In the age of social networks it is difficult to avoid new cyberspace relationships. Fortunately, all social networks allow you to filter who is allowed to contact you or see your information. I have in the past added people who I don't know to my Myspace or Facebook accounts only to delete them after realizing I am not interested in continuing communications. I have noticed that friendships which exist exclusively in cyberspace lack the feeling of really connecting with the other person. There is something about physical contact to me that makes the friendship or relationship with another person real. I like being able to look into another person's eyes and to read their body language. Face to face relationships have that connection which could never be possible in cyberspace.