The 5 Stages of Internet Friendship

1. You quietly follow their blog and/or Twitter feed (also known as lurking).
2. You comment on their blog or respond to their tweets.
3. You exchange e-mail with them.
4. You friend them on Facebook.
5. You add them to your instant messaging buddy list.

Things were a little different back in 1990, when I was new to the net:

1. You read their posts on USENET.
2. You send them e-mail about their posts.
3. You publicly respond to their posts.
4. You chat with them using talk, BITnet Relay, or perhaps IRC.
5. You talk with them on the phone or meet them in person.

Thank goodness today we have enough social networking technology to avoid that last step! Hooray for progress, eh?