I like text better, I find it easier to think of things to say if I'm not trying to make sense of as much information, plus I think I still haven't gotten that good at eye contact yet. Also, you can't PM people face-to-face, the best you can do is make everybody wonder why you're spending so much time whispering to someone. Which is useful since usually I'll have a few people I kinda like talking to, but finding things to talk about that the entire group would be interested in is a lot harder, so being able to talk to people one at a time while still hanging out with a bunch of friends is cool.