Has virtual life taken over your real life?

Remember when people used to go trembling into society, hand in mouth... now they go boldly into virtual society, hand on mouse?

Isn't it amazing how many chatters will spend their days and nights at the computer conducting friendships through Facebook and MySpace, all while whoring themselves out in Yahoo chat rooms? True 24/7 losers... looking for virtual relationships, virtual excitement and even virtual sex online.

Is it naive to think chatters can live their lives this way, with their eyes on the screen and their minds on themselves, without affecting their capacity for real human relationships? Chat 'scrap such as cck2ca, dakilangmanok1, and berrybusygirl36 argue that we've been witnessing a new kind of addiction for some time. For addiction arises when something good... in this case, friendship, is provided with a cost free substitute that can be found at the flick of a switch.

YAY!!!... no more having to go outdoors for love and friendship.

Cck2ca says that in real life, friendship involves risk... the risk of embarrassment and anger, and the effort of winning another’s trust. He tells fellow chat 'scrap like boltsgirlvl4 and aka_rockin_canadian_girl that he can pretty much avoid this risk and still obtain pleasure of love and friendship while online.

Online... I have the power... says wildbp. When I relate to a chatter or have relations through the screen with a chatter, I have my finger on the button and at any moment I can turn them off... well hopefully I'm turning them on before turning them off. LMAO. See, you can't do that in real life relationships.

I retain ultimate control, and I am not risking myself with the online relationships I am in... says lotusblossom604. I risk myself when I meet a guy face to face. Two failed marriages, a child born from each, dozens of failed 'flings'. I can't keep doing this to myself. Anyway, my non-virtual relationships keep getting in my way of me succeeding in life and business. I will get to top. It's all about me.

I once saw talker_a_talker type in the room... Of course I may stay glued to the screen. Nevertheless, it is a screen that I am glued to, not to the chat ho behind it.

Can someone please tell me what the fuck that means.

King dakilangmanok1 has referred to his computer as his cyber-castle. Within this castle he provides opportunities for virtual "business", and virtual “social” action for guys and girls (okay, mostly guys) and is known by his peers as a hero of compassion. All this without lifting a finger in the real world. NICE!!!

In NHL:1 it is possible to see chat couples who have never met describe their hot 'n steamy affairs conducted in cyberspace. These chatters show no guilt. They proudly display their narcissistic emotions as though they had achieved some kind of moral breakthrough. Some chat couples go as far as saying they've met... but only the gullible believe in that. The chatters with an IQ in double digits know that it is only their avatars, and not they themselves, that ended up in bed.

You all are probably asking... does this really matter? Personally, I think it does... for trust, accountability and risk taking are dispositions on which the future of society depends. These things are learnt by accepting the real cost of them. They are not learnt by playing with their virtual substitutes, any more than real courage is learnt by playing with violent computer games. As people habituate themselves to living in virtual worlds where all is permitted and nothing is paid for, virtues like courage and justice will disappear, since nobody will have a need for them. Without those virtues, however, people will be unable to risk themselves in real encounters, and will hide instead in their narcissistic dreams. Some people look forward to this, hoping for a brave new world of virtual relationships... but surely the best thing about such a world is that no real person will be born there.