When Worlds Collide: Virtual Reality and the Real World.

Although the Internet can unite us with strangers, it can divide us from friends and family. As we develop online relationships with people we don't know, we can neglect relationships with people we do know.

Virtual reality is seductive. It can be more appealing to log onto the Net and talk to strangers that to deal with the rigors of interacting with friends and family. The Net allows us to communicate selectively-to say what we want when we want to. We don't have to put up with people's mood and personalities. If we don't like what a "Net friend" says, we can log off-or strike up a conversation with someone more to our liking at the moment. In contrast, with friends, family and even more acquaintances, we have to put up with many dimensions of their personalities, not all of them pleasant.

Some find the net world so alluring that real world reality pales by comparison. One man became "addicted" to pornography on the Net. Each evening after work, he would ignore his wife and children and seclude himself in his home office. There he would view pornography until it was time to go to bed. Night after night, it was the same. His wife finally gave him an ultimatum: Either he stop viewing his cyber babes, or she would leave. He said that he loved her but couldn't give this up. She left. He turned on his virtual lovers.

Something to think about:
Do you think that our future will see us plugging into the NET and unplugging from family and friends? Don't forget to leave your comment.


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