real as serious or not

• What makes cyberspace interesting? by John Suler, 6/26/97
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    • re: real as serious or not by John Suler, 3/20/98
      
      

Using your logic, D. Adv., then it seems that EVERYTHING people do in cyberspace is "real." Do we really want to come to that conclusion?

Boy!--this is certainly a 'tough' one. I would tend to think that in a certain sense everything we do online is a 'real' expression of ourselves at some level of our being, though, perhaps being constrained from being acted upon within our 'normal' RL social fabric. Often times, I find myself just typing without going through a conscious cognitive process, then, looking back and saying to myself: WOW! what a jerk I was..or..WOW! that was brilliant..or WOW! look how insecure I was. I like to take responsibility for my utterances as IF they indeed were a 'real' expression of various aspects of my persona. I tend to think that by not accepting it as 'real', is much like someone having what they deem an untoward sexual fantasy and then discounting it by saying "it is not really me, it is just a fantasy". To such an individual I am compelled to inquire, "then if it is not you, how did it get in your psyche?" It is only when they reply that they borrowed the fantasy from a friend in an effort to make their life more interesting, that I get taken aback a moment! :)

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