I recently stumbled across the article 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life by Alexandra Samuelin the Harvard Business Review.

Since I've had many a conversation with friends about the difference between RL & SL, I thought you might find it interesting. Ms Samuel argues that the internet is "Real Life" too, something I've come to believe as well. Here's a list of the 10 reasons, please see the article for her complete argument:

It's time to start living in 21st century reality: a reality that is both on- and offline. Acknowledge online life as real, and the Internet's transformative potential opens up:

1. When you commit to being your real self online, you discover parts of yourself you never dared to share offline.

2. When you visualize the real person you're about to e-mail or tweet, you bring human qualities of attention and empathy to your online communications.
3. When you take the idea of online presence literally, you can experience your online disembodiment as a journey into your mind rather than out of your body.

4. When you treat your Facebook connections as real friends instead of "friends", you stop worrying about how many you have and focus on how well you treat them.

5. When you take your Flickr photos, YouTube videos and blog posts seriously as real art, you reclaim creative expression as your birthright.

6. When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.

7. When you treat your online attention as a real resource, you invest your attention in the sites that reflect your values, helping those sites grow.

8. When you spend your online time on what really matters to you, you experience your time online as an authentic reflection of your values.

9. When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.

10. When you talk honestly about the real joys and frustrations of the Internet, you can stop apologizing for your life online.

What do you think?

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

updated by @tatiana-dokuchic: 06 Oct 2016 06:03:47AM

These are good reasons.When speaking on virtual reality a few years ago, I made a point of stating that it's all reality. Virtuality doesn't mean something is not 'real', though it influences the aesthetics of that particular interface, object, or system.Theorists like Baudrillard and Eco write of 'hyperreality' voicing a postmodern uncertainty about it ... there are always certain trends, like the trend towards idealizing the unplugged past and bemoaning the present, that recur apart from their merits. It isn't that it's wrong to mistrust something, anything, that becomes a big part of our lives, as we should live examined lives in which we reflect on our choices and come to understand ourselves and our world. That responsibility is ours, though, and we are free to make choices.For most, finding oneself is a lifetime's journey. Most people will experiment with many things. Some consequences are moderated when experiments with one's identity occur online, and an argument can be made that we are the better for that. Of course, anything can go wrong and any life can become imbalanced. This can happen no matter what our propensities, whether we have any virtual components to our existences or not.Which is to say that feeling guilty or not feeling guilty without thinking much about either is both normal and probably a waste unless it is accompanied by a willingness to live an examined life, to think and reflect, to choose and to own our choices.I hope that all of you will embrace whatever it is that you love and be whomever it is that you are. Be your best self if you can be, wherever you find yourself.~EL

I too agree that the virtual world is as real as real life. I don't think it should take over your life though but rather be an addition to enhance your real life. A place to relax, enjoy, be happy, creative, expand knowledge and meet new friends throughout the world. A retreat so to speak. It's when it takes over RL that it becomes an addiction that is unhealthy.

I gave up trying to explain my online life a long time ago but I don't think I've ever actually apologized for it


--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

Your Grace:This Pirate agrees with you 250%

Well said Your Grace !!!!

Very true, and well spoken. Additionally, when we have the freedom to be anyone we want and do almost anything we wish to do, we're making a very important statement about who we truly are at heart. We reveal our true selves to ourselves.

one can still read books and be addicted to SL loland what I find most important about my and the second life of others is that we learn things here our RLs would never be able to provide. It is quite fascinating that we live history in these communities. It is an experience we would never make in any rl environment.