Can virtual relationships be “real” relationships?
Can virtual relationships–cultivated over an internet forum, in an online game, or with an internet community–be “real” relationships? Is there something fundamental about a face-to-face personal relationship or community that isn’t present in its online counterpart? At the Youth Ministry Exchange, David Garrison (who has lots of experience with online communities and games) asks some hard questions about the different between “real” and “virtual” relationships.
Looking to the Bible for a definition of community, he makes some challenging observations:
Real relationships are hard; mostly because they are hard to control due to the reality of other people being involved. Virtual communities provide an opportunity for us to have a greater level of control, or at least perceive a greater level of control, over those relationships and seek to engage people on our own terms rather than risking them engaging us on our terms. I am seeing more and more people trading genuine relationships for virtual ones. With the advent of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites, it is becoming easier than ever to abandon reality and seek to fulfill all of our relational needs virtually. And it feels like those needs are being met.
But they aren’t.
Read the full essay for his reasoning and conclusions.
