Internet-relational activity

Am I the only one that finds it weird when you talk to people online that you don’t know in person, speak about personal things, grow some sense of a friendship or acquaintanceship with them, and then when you meet them in person, they still feel the need to shake your hand and say “nice to meet you”?

I’ve been on a casual date or two where we talked online for a while before arranging a meeting. I’ve become friends with my girlfriend’s friends on Facebook and Twitter and had conversations there, and yet it’s weird when I hug them like a friend rather than shake their hand and say “nice to meet you” even though, in many ways, we’ve already met.

This is a new thing, obviously, and only pertains to a small number of people on the Internet. A lot of you feel like it’s dangerous to meet people from the Internet, which seems silly to me, but that’s a different issue. The point is that there seem to be differing views on how well we know people that we’ve never shared a room with but have still had personal conversations with.

Does there need to be something in between a hug and a handshake for those of us that “know” each other virtually when we meet in person? This Internet thing doesn’t seem to be going away, so perhaps it’s time.