Follow-up on Friendships

Alexandra Alter, “Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?” Wall Street Journal, Aug. 10, 2007, W8, W1.

A few days ago I wrote a piece about Friendship and if we are or are not losing our friends due to Web 2.0. I found this article written in 2007 that I thought was pretty interesting regarding virtual worlds and the impact they have on their "real world". Below are some highlights

"Nearly 40% of men and 53% of women who play online games said their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends, according to a survey of 30,000 gamers conducted by Nick Yee, a recent Ph.D. graduate from Stanford University. More than a quarter of gamers said the emotional highlight of the past week occurred in a computer world, according to the survey, which was published in 2006 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press's journal Presence."

I will ask the same question that I asked before: How will this effect society. If we no longer make social connections in the real world, how will we end up being treated, and how will we end up treating others. Will we ignore the real concerns of the world, while enjoying "paradise" in a virtual one? I don't know. . .