The sting of rejection. Ouch.

Well, apparently I'm not good enough for Mr. Jean-Marc. Maybe he likes women who are employed... or French.... or literate.

Probably the most disturbing thing about this is that when I told my sister about the 'experiment', she thought I was attracted to this guy. *She* gave *me* advice about 'online dating'. Four out of my last eight relationships were with people I had known previously online. Half of those four were what we could call 'normal'.

People you meet on the Internet are typically socially maladjusted. Oh yes. Yours truly included.

I felt very defensive when my sister made that comment. Which makes me wonder about the rise of the Internet. When I first went online (about 8 years ago, at the tender age of 15), it was the underbelly of society. It was mostly comprised of greasy, obnoxious boys. The kind who probably picked at their zits in public. There was also maybe a handful of women. They were so rare in this society that they achieved goddess like status. Those were the days....

I'm not really sure where this rant is going... I think maybe I'm hesitant to open up my playground. I was there for the 'golden age' of this new medium, and I guess I'm protective of it. It's a depressing thing to admit, but my computer was my best friend during my adolescence. There were unspoken rules of online communication then. There were less consequences then. Or maybe I was naïve.

Anyway, the Internet has gone from something I would only talk about with my geeky brethren, to a mainstream mode of communication. I used to talk with complete strangers online, form intense (but ridiculous) relationships, but never meet them face to face. Now, I use the Internet to talk with my family and "real" friends. It's such an interesting shift. It's sort of akin to the shift in attitudes about homosexuality. Computer geeks used to hide their geekiness. Homosexuals (well, some of them.. let's not get too carried away with the generalizations) used to hide their homosexuality. Geeky things were done in back rooms, with their peers, and was hardly ever spoken of outside of that setting. Same thing with homosexuality. Then the shift. Geeks became gods. Gay men became an essential accessory for the cosmopolitan woman. Both became VALUABLE.

Well, there's a whole can of worms. I am fully aware of my sweeping generalizations, but it's my blog, damnit. Wanna make something of it?