Are relationships in cyberspace worth intrinsically less than the ones that take place only in meatspace? What I mean is, are relationships that are formed in a virtual world necessarily less real than ones that are formed with people you can physically see in front of you? In Second Life in particular, it is much easier to find people with shared interests (or shared afflictions, if you will). There is no practical way to find these people except for the internet. Since many of us live separated by hundreds or thousands of miles of geographical separation, interacting in a virtual world may be the best we can hope for outside of expensive conventions that are held only once a year. ... “Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one." ... It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision - it is then that Friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves *.*.*.*.*.*.*.* As for why I am able to get so much fulfillment from a place that is by definition virtual and not actual: “Alone among unsympathetic companions, I hold certain views and standards timidly, half ashamed to avow them and half doubtful if they can after all be right. Put me back among my Friends and in half an hour - in ten minutes - these same views and standards become once more indisputable. The opinion of this little circle, while I am in it, outweighs that of a thousand outsiders: as Friendship strengthens, it will do this even when my Friends are far away. For we all wish to be judged by our peers, by the men "after our own heart." Only they really know our mind and only they judge it by standards we fully acknowledge. Theirs is the praise we really covet and the blame we really dread.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 14:33:17 +0000
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