Okay, so this is a better place to chime-in than offering a new comment. As such, I will do so...

While I do not doubt that on-line environments provide ample opportunity for pretending and bullshit, I would be careful to assume that IRL provides some type of failsafe. Sure, we have all had an experience such as that to which Bad Cat alludes. We meet a person in person and realize (or THINK we realize) they are a turd. I think--and Malcolm Gladwell would agree--that we also tend to place too much faith in our ability to ferret out a person's "trueness" from meeting them. Liars lie. They are good at it regardless of medium. Thinking they are less good at it if we can "shake their hands" is likely folly, particularly if only a few of the examples from "Talking To Strangers" are illustrative. Thankfully, most people are NOT scum or "squids" as was the dude in Bad Cat's story. Anyway, just offering what I hope is a reasonable counterpoint to a point-of-view with which I largely agree!