11. What happens in CMC should STAY in CMC

During my freshman year of high school, my best friend began
dating a girl from another town. He wanted to be able
to spend more time with her, so he convinced me to try and
befriend one of her good friends online so that we could
all hang out together. I reluctantly agreed. I was given this
 girl’s screen name, and we began to talk on AIM. While
it was awkward in the beginning, I found that she seemed
to be one of the most fun people I had ever talked to.
She was very open and spontaneous, and as Uncertainty
Reduction theory predicts, the more time we spent talking
online, the more intimate our conversations became, and
the more positively we viewed one another. 

My friend broke up with his girlfriend well before I ever got
to meet this girl, so it seemed like our friendship would have
to remain online. Months of such conversations went by, and
 we talked more and more frequently. We both believed
that we were romantically interested in one another, and she
 made plans to come visit me. When we finally did meet,
it was the strangest experience of my life. When we saw
one another for the first time, we both realized that we
didn’t really know each other at all. I could tell that we both
felt ridiculous as we walked back from the train station
to my house, and rather than being the fun, flirtatious and s
pontaneous person I had been speaking to online, she
looked like a deer trapped in the headlights. I can’t imagine
that I was much better- the level of uncertainty about
exactly where we stood, (I mean, I knew so much about her
but had never even seen her before), led me to be almost
completely silent. It redefined awkward. 

The Ramirez and Wang article would predict these findings.
We had been over attributing the positive characteristics
and things we had in common online, and had developed
very strong impressions of one another. However, these
impressions were not representative, and when we met
one another, we were obviously confused and let down. 

Suffice it to say that we agreed she should probably
just go home about an hour after she arrived.
We never spoke again.