Okay, so I know that this title sounds like an online dating post, but it’s really not.

The social networking that is becoming commonplace online is a defining feature of the Internet and Web 2.0’s direction. The World Wide Web is more than just about making a transaction or reading the news; it’s now also about making connections with other people.

Look no farther than MySpace, Facebook, SecondLife, LinkedIn, and others to see how vast and quickly expanding this phenomenon is. And this isn’t just a teenager and twenty-something’s fad either. The Star Tribune based out of Minneapolis, MN quotes research firm ComScore, which found that Facebook users above age 35 had a 98% increase in membership from May of 06 to May of 07. Web sites targeting older users such as Eons are springing up, and the new reality is that people are learning and creating a whole new set of social rules to form meaningful online relationships.

Depending on the school, I wonder if online education programs may be an avenue for students to not just create better career options, but to develop new friends too. For the uninitiated, this can be a way to get one’s feet wet without plunging into the jungle of bigger social networking sites. A person can have a chance to see what it’s like to develop a relationship based solely on email, message boards, and IM.

It’s an interesting way to develop a relationship because it precludes a lot of prejudgments from visual cues about someone’s clothing, age, race, hair style, etc. You may just find that making friends online is really a neat opportunity, and if you’re doing it while attending school online, it’s a nice bonus on top of earning an education.