On Thu, 13 Aug 2009, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> However, I see a major difference between participatory social networks
> (i.e. people meeting face to face) and virtual networks... In other
> words, it is like making love and jacking off - both are sexual acts,
> but the latter is merely a poor ersatz of the former.
You're leaving out many crucial differences. Virtual friends interact with you; fantasies do not. Virtual friends of long standing can become internalized parts of your self. (What would Mado think? Oh, actually she'd be right, I should alter that. I should ask Jordan how to solve this. He'll ask me X. Oh, damn, that's the fucking answer.)
And lastly, virtual friends can become friends in the 3-D world. Doug and I had a virtual relation for 10 years before I ever met him. Now I know and cherish his wife and his child and have dinner at their home every few months -- as old fashioned a relationship as one could imagine.
But in 40 years of jacking off, nothing like that has ever happened to me.
Michael