i once did a project with a kid in my class who was from north korea, and who i thought didn't speak a lot of english, but i found out he was just shy. when i talked to him in class he was very quiet, however when i talked to him on msn he just seemed like anyone else. it was pretty strange, he was a completely different person.



so i wonder if maybe it's not just from his side, being more able to express himself when behind a computer screen, but maybe it's also me, as it's harder to judge someone by the appearance of their avatar than their real life selves. perhaps i have a kind of default persona that i expect when talking to someone online, that's different from the personality i expect from meeting a new person IRL.