Proud to be an Internet dork

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. This is my first confession. I have only one sin to confess, but it's less socially acceptable than admitting to watching "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour."\nFor you see, I am an Internet dork. \nWhen I wake up, between classes and even before bed, I spend almost all my time on message boards, specifically those on a local site called http://thehoosierweb.com. And if I'm not on there, I'm on http://thefacebook.com or other assorted sites, or just goofing off on AOL Instant Messenger. If the Internet were crack, I'd be long dead.\nYou might not think that's too bad. Lots of college kids spend more time than they should on the Internet. But it gets much, much worse.\nNot only do I go to these sites, but I meet people from them; in fact, now when I go somewhere, it's almost exclusively with people that I met from Web sites. I study with them, I have dinner with them, and I even go out and get drunk with them. \nHeck, next year, I'm living in a house with four other guys, and I met three of them -- you guessed it -- online. And we refer to each other by our screen names.\nI even met my girlfriend through AOL, and she wasn't the first, but certainly, the least creepy.\nI know, I know it's terrible! But please let me defend myself before judging me too harshly.\nSince the dawn of computers, those who use them have been stereotyped as big, fat dudes who sit there all day eating junk food, watching porn and avoiding all human contact.\nOK, I'm a big, fat guy who sits at his computer, eats junk food and watches porn, but I'm using the computer to meet people, not avoid them. \nBeing underage and not having a fake ID to go to the bars, meeting new people at IU can be a pain in the butt. Most classes are too big to actually get to know anyone, and I've lived in some very anti-social dorms. You don't exactly make friends for life at drunken house parties, either (though you can still meet some great friends for a night).\nBy communicating with people online before meeting them, you can really get a feel for their personality, and if they're boring or just plain weird, you don't have to ever meet them. \nI've found that when I meet people from the Internet in person after chatting with them for awhile, it's almost like I've known them in person for that long because I have so many stories and jokes in common with them.\nI know a lot of people have a fear that the person they're talking to online might be some kind of pervert, but after meeting more than 100 people from The Hoosier Web or AIM, those fears seem unfounded. Most people are incredibly normal and down to Earth. They just think the Internet is a great way to meet people.\nStatistics for how many people use the Internet to meet people are hard to come by, but in 2002 Internet dating sites had attracted 2.5 million people, according to the informational Web site http:///howstuffworks.com. That number is expected to double by 2006.\nSo far, the worst that's happened is that I've agreed to go on a couple of bad dates. Sure, that's unpleasant, but it's hardly the end of the world.\nThe whole idea of making acquaintances on the Internet seems to freak out a lot of people whether it be because of the anonymity or the social stigma, but it's really not that bad. And as the world gets bigger and more impersonal, I think a lot more people are going to start using it as the main way to meet new people.