The article draws real life examples of how our virtual relationships affect our offline life. I'm quoting the first few paras below, before adding my two cents.
Last month, three unrelated stories challenged the idea that internet relationships are just fantasy and therefore less important, less powerful and less real than offline relationships.
They aren't.
First, I read the Wired magazine piece about Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two in New York state. Montgomery invented two alternate identities and got both of them involved online with the 17-year-old girl persona of Mary, a forty-something married woman in West Virginia, whom he met at the games site, Pogo.com. He then became so jealous that she was also seeing his co-worker online, that he shot the guy dead in the parking lot after work.
In real life. Where you can't just get a snack, go pee and log back in.
This is "just fantasy"? No. At least, it's no more fantastic than any other murderer's fantasy image of himself as a tough guy out to keep other men off his woman. Montgomery's was a real -- albeit twisted -- relationship, based on power and manipulation rather than love or sex, and one that resulted in real tragedy.
A Wall Street Journal article described a couple who met online three years ago and whose offline marriage is now on the rocks because of the husband's immersion in Second Life. Or maybe he initially immersed himself in Second Life because the marriage wasn't going so well; it's hard to tell.
And the article goes on.
I'll have to admit that I'm one of those people who excels in virtual world rather than real world. My colleagues joke that I would download a burger and live off it if that were an option.
One of my close virtual friends is Jason Fernandes, who I've never met, but who have introduced me to wonderful friends like Parul, Richard, Nicolas and Wil, all of whom have visited Dhaka, and we had a great toast to Jason's referring abilities.
I'm still great friends with someone who I met only once in Chicago, and shared a dinner and a dance with back in 1999. We are able to continue with our offline lives, but can support each other through difficult periods.
And most of my significant relationships have flourished from online, because in real life, I'm this robotic geek who can't talk beyond work and family, whereas I can unleash my playful side in pages of the web because it's so easy to log off whenever I feel like. Try logging off from someone who begins to irritate you in real life...
it's _virtually_ impossible!
