Some of the best experiences can be found online. If you have the opportunity translate the worthwhile relationships you can create with people online into first person relationships, you have the possibility for a relationship with a person well beyond any depth of closeness and communication you've ever experienced. Think about it. The first contact you have with a person online is their written word. When writing, one has perfect control over what one says and how it is said. Anything typed which, when looked over, is inappropriate, can simply be backspaced into oblivion without any repercussions, nor the nervousness related to "Uh, that's not what I meant.. this is all coming out the wrong way." This practically eliminates misunderstandings due to tongue-tied-ness. I simply *can't* be the only person who's discovered this phenomena. And when you 'talk' with a person online, inhibitions float away on a cloud and you can speak of the issues which *really* matter to you, in a civilized way, to others whose inhibitions have also taken a flight to la la land. Issues which have verbal taboos in our minds are suddenly free to be discussed, and in the discussing you become closer to the person who understands and empathizes with your experience.
If you're lucky, you will have spoken to your friend for a long while before one of you suggests a picture exchange. Why lucky, says you? Well, because if you have no previous prejudices against this person, you are free to go on a frenzy of learning about one another, without any mental images to distract you. And quite often, by the time you do exchange photos, the person's physical appearance is unimportant. You'll be their friend no matter what. And by that same token, a person about whom you care often looks good to you in direct proportion to the amount you care.