How old are you? 17 years

How often do you use the internet? It depends on who's online. I can spent as little as half an hour online, or as long as 15 hours online.

Do you talk to people online? If so, are you close to any of them? My main drive for being online now a days is to talk to people and I'm close to all of them.

How do you normally communicate with people further away? Phone? Letters? E-mail? All of the above. Mostly emaol and letters, but I try to call every holiday.

Have you ever had a pen pal? How close were you to them? Well, techniqually, once you start exchanging letters with a person, they become your pen pal. So, yes. I've had several and they're my best friends in the world.

Do you think relationships online can be as strong as real life relationships? Stronger? Please explain. I honestly believe that online relationships tend to be stronger than real life relationships because people that tend to get online are generally better at expressing themselves through writing. More gets said and explained. Plus, you don't have silly things like physical appearance to get in the way. And lastly, you can be picky online. If you don't like someone, you just don't ever talk to them again. I find that my online friends actually seem to care for me more than my real life friends because they don't like me based on who I hang out with or what I look like. They tend to be a lot more loyal and trustworthy.

Do you consciously take looks into account when meeting a person face to face for the first time? Do you think you might unconsciously? Everyone does it unconsciously, it's human nature. I do it consciously, yes, but I make an effort to allow the person to influence me more than their looks.

Would it make sense to you, then, that maybe meeting someone where you can't see them, would allow you to get to know that person better? Explain, either way. You mean like what they did with the dating game? It might make sense for someone else, but I'm a naturally shy person and I just express myself better with writing. I'm more comfortable that way. I wouldn't be able to say much in person if I didn't know that person. I could be comfortable around my online friends [like if they were with me in real life], but only because I already know them.

Have you ever met in person, someone you first met online? If so, were they what you thought they would be? Not yet, but next summer I'm flying out to meet my best friend. And I know she's exactly what I expect because I've known her for three years. I have a million pictures of her, a million letters from her, five billion emails from her, and I've called her on every holiday for three years. And we make video tapes & sent them back and forth.