If you have a conversation with someone face-to-face, you're meeting with them, but if you have a conversation over the phone, you're speaking with them. This is understandable because speaking is a subset of meeting, and there are forms of interaction in a meeting, such as body language, visual presentation, etc., that don't occur in a telephone conversation.

So what about the area in between? If you 'meet' someone online, the word meet usually signifies the initiation of contact, rather than a specific instance. If you start talking with someone in a chat room or instant messaging service, you've 'met' them, but if you made first contact through email or telephone only, you've simply 'spoken with' them.

What about videophones? What about the person with whom you've spoken dozens of times on the phone and electronically, but 'finally meet in person'? What does it actually mean to meet someone, and how can you meet someone for the first time if you've already spoken with them so many times?

Just something I'm thinking, and thus blogging, about this morning...