A good friend – Neeraj – posted another good entry on his blog, this time on the issues concerning how much we reveal of ourselves online, and what that means for relationships.  Naturally, it made for an interesting read.  Here is a brief excerpt…

A (Twitter) timeline that follows 150 people or more moves fast… Sometimes I try to put those thoughts together into a coherent picture of the individual and I fail. It reminds me of a Salman Rushdie novel I’d read where a man isn’t allowed to see his prospective wife, but only parts of her through a veil. He sees the eyes, nose, hands, chin, feet and is smitten. When he sees her after the wedding, the whole is decidedly less than the sum of the parts. This is what worries me about online friendships.

Over the past year that I’ve spent on this medium (Twitter) I’ve been fascinated by some of the people I follow. I think I know them, I think I relate but I don’t know if they’ve really let me into the most private realms of their world. A privilege few extend and fewer deserve.

Until I meet them I can only continue to build my edifice of thoughts, letting a chosen few enter in the hope they extend the same faith.

See what I mean?  Thought-provoking, it certainly was.  And, I found myself responding…

My take is that it differs from person to person. If you’re the sort who doesn’t care much for “what people may think” and are true to your identity, you’ll behave online how you really are.  But, others could just as easily create an elaborate exercise of projecting the kind of impression they want to project.  To make matters worse, both types may post about only a limited range of topics, and almost certainly not include the thoughts they consider “personal” to them.

So, I guess, I’d agree with him for the most part – you can’t really tell how someone truly is unless you’ve met them. And, then too, you can only build up a picture from what they allow themselves to reveal…

That said, every once in a while, you come across someone who you immediately connect with. Your wavelengths match, your ideas resonate and your discussions make sense… And, you’re pretty sure that if they lived in your neighborhood, you’d be good friends, and hang out as much as possible.

And, somewhere deep down, you believe that it’s not just a “persona” – it’s all true!