Anyone for a chat?

Used Meebo which i knew about before hand but had not used, so this was the perfect platform from which to try it out. Allowed me to chat from one place across many different accounts: gmail, MSN, ICQ and others. Also it was web based so i didn't need to download a client onto my desktop. I signed up for ICQ; i already had gmail and msn accounts. Last week i also joined the internet discussion group set up on yahoo so i could use that account as well. announced myself on the discussion board inviting others to chat. So far so good, other people made announcements too. took there account numbers and bookmarked them in meebo. Everybody seems to be very busy. No one seems to be online when i was. And then someone turned up!!
What now. with a little trepidation i ventured into the online world of real time chat. Very hesitant at first. wasn't sure of the proper etiquette. How do i start a conversation? Something safe i suspect. should i ask a question about there life outside net11? or is that considered just too intrusive? And how much of myself should i reveal? Don't use CAPITALS because it means you're shouting.
It's more than that though. This is real time conversation without the non verbal cues that make up so much of normal conversation. In my other life away from studying i work in a place where i meet new people everyday. I have learn't to develop rapport quickly because i have to. I do it not so much through what i say as how i say it and through my body language, being careful to come across in a welcoming way. Also, i do some volunteer work on the side as a telephone counsellor: No visual cues here but plenty of auditory ones. We're trained to pick them up: the tone of voice, the silences, the sighs . we do that and learn to find the feelings underneath and to let the caller know you have been listening: by reflecting back what they are saying. by paraphrasing, by the tone of your own voice. Comparing this with real time text based chat, i found this very difficult. it was pointed out in the conversation that you can use emoticons to display how you are feeling. great! But my first thoughts are that it is a very limited vehicle for carrying on a decent conversation.
The other thing i found difficult was knowing when to pause. in face to face speech, people instinctively know when there is a pause in the conversation enabling them to speak ( At least most people do). But i found i was talking (texting) at the same time as the other person some of the time. Should i have waited for a response before i texted again? And if there is no response, is that being rude? many questions.

Overall i found this task novel and interesting. Not sure how i rate it at this stage. You can potentially maintain a sense of anonymity if you want to with real time chat. You can use an alias for username and a disposable email address when signing up. No problems there. Perhaps that is part of the attraction? You can then be rather disinihibitated if you choose, say things that you might not really have the nerve to say in situations where your identity is known.
Many things to reflect further on as the course progresses. I 'll come back to this i think.