Well, I agree with a lot of this. I have made some very close friendships in my last 7 years online. I spent a few years "at home" on a forum, and then moved here to LJ. I love it dearly. I have shared the best and worst of me with my online friends, and I think that the fact that there was distance and the dynamics were so different made it easier for me to confide in my online friends more than other people who were in my life.
However, I do think that Facebook is quite a shitty thing, and that's not because I'm 'new' to the internet or I don't understand it. I have one, and I have the strictest privacy controls that are offered. And still, the site's privacy policy is gross (that they own all my pictures and writing the moment I put it there - something which keeps me from using the site seriously, like I do on LJ), and I've heard of several cases of FB being a total dick to people who had gotten wronged because of the site. And then smaller matters, like allowing hate groups freely on FB, but deleting breastfeeding pictures as "pornography". Ugh.
Basically, I don't like Facebook, but I agree with you that the internet isn't about hiding behind a different persona, that many people find the freedom to be themselves here. When I joined that forum at age 13, I'd never met such different and interesting people. We sort of grew up with each other over the years, they were both a comfort and an influence on me. And for kids growing up different, a like-minded person can make all the difference in the world.
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However, I do think that Facebook is quite a shitty thing, and that's not because I'm 'new' to the internet or I don't understand it. I have one, and I have the strictest privacy controls that are offered. And still, the site's privacy policy is gross (that they own all my pictures and writing the moment I put it there - something which keeps me from using the site seriously, like I do on LJ), and I've heard of several cases of FB being a total dick to people who had gotten wronged because of the site. And then smaller matters, like allowing hate groups freely on FB, but deleting breastfeeding pictures as "pornography". Ugh.
Basically, I don't like Facebook, but I agree with you that the internet isn't about hiding behind a different persona, that many people find the freedom to be themselves here. When I joined that forum at age 13, I'd never met such different and interesting people. We sort of grew up with each other over the years, they were both a comfort and an influence on me. And for kids growing up different, a like-minded person can make all the difference in the world.