This is an interesting topic, and I agree with a lot of what people have said.

Personally, I have never been hurt or offended or upset by online use of terms of endearement, and in real life my husband and I use all sorts of names for each other.

I DO get offended by these temrs when they are used in customer service types of situations.... like when a waitress or cashier calls me "hon" or (even worse in my opinion) when a nurse or other medical professional uses these terms.

I consider it worse for a nurse to use terms of endearement because a nurse has my name on his/her chart, it's a professional situation even if it's not a work environment, and the majority of the time the patient is in a vunerable position (such as laying ill in a hospital bed), and having any medical professional use these terms is just degrading in my opinion.

But I feel special when my husband uses terms of endearement, I feel like part of the family when my in-laws use them, I feel a little weird when real life friends use them but at the same time I do feel like they care about me....

....but online it never bothers me to be called 'hon' or 'sweety' because in my opinion it is a way to show caring through words. Online you can't see a smile, or feel someone put a hand on your shoulder to show care/concern, and you can't hear the care in their tone of voice because everything online is just words on a page. So to me, using terms of endearement online is like a way of letting people hear the care in your voice, letting people see the smile on your face, letting people feel the hand of support of their shoulder.

Liz