The illusion of seclusion

The way we as online addicts view being 'social' is very different than the people we probably live with. To our families, they see us in a basement or at a desk for several hours a day and think we're doing it to be antisocial, and to seclude ourselves from others. Honestly, this is probably false. One of the greatest things about the internet is its ability to connect us to people whom we'd never be able to meet otherwise. Games between players from all over the world (in my circle, New Zealand, UK, and many states in the US!) are shared, and we meet on a common ground. We're there to have fun; we're there to make friends. These friends, although you may never meet them in the flesh, become the best of friends; ones you feel you've known your entire life. You don't have to see them in the person to cherish the time you spend with them, and you end up learning more about them than most of your "real life" friends.

I use the term "real life" loosely. This is the phrase your parents say when you say you have friends, and that you aren't social, but people who never experience this first hand will never be able to understand... but that's okay. I know that I don't feel any less fulfilled whether i'm sitting on a couch watching tv with a friend, or shooting zombies with them via Left 4 Dead 2. Where we are makes no difference.

So while we may be the ones hiding as hermits, we are instead the ones who are able to fly through the world, and meet people across the globe. We're capable of making real life connections to people who we only see and hear, never touch.

I've tried before to explain this position to people who are unfamiliar with it, and the response is always the same: "But they aren't real friends, they're internet friends." As annoying as this response is, I can't really blame them for it. It's a phenomenon that our parents were too early to experience. Internet dating and relationships are in full force, and whether you want to admit they're real or not; to the people, they are very, very real. We fall in love, we get broken hearts; we laugh, we cry. Why is this so vastly different than real life that you refuse to learn about it?