Gorckat recently mentioned that he saw me pop into FICS, but was too nervous to say hi. At first, this seemed strange, because online chat is not that personal, but this (along with other experiences) lead me to develop a theory of social barriers.

As one moves up the scale below, interaction becomes more personal and it takes an extra layer of guts to communicate in this fashion for the first time. However, it’s not very hard to move down the scale.

• Face-to-face
• Telephone
• Online chat
• E-mail
• Blog or forum responses

Of course, if you’re naturally social, the amount of guts it takes to move up the scale may be very small, and romantic interest can throw the scale completely out of whack.