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The advent of the online world was first and primarily a revolution in information and access to data. We could gain much more information far more effectively and easier than, say, by going to the library, and access to individuals, groups and organizations became far more broadly available and generally cheaper than by phone, post or travel. In more recent years there has been a second revolution online—namely, the rise of social life. Social networking sites have become the predominant use of the internet. Google, for instance, has now fierce competition from Face-book. Facebook is now, together with Amazon, Google and Apple, a formidable force in the market for IT services. At the forefront of social life becoming the predominant use of the internet has been the pursuit of friendships online. In fact, as is now widely recognized, the average user conducts more than one hundred friendships online. Many users …