Comments on: Impossibly Positive: Love in a Virtual World (Newsweek on Relationships and Second Life)

By: helen

helen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:22:28 +0000

Jo:
If you knew Rhonda before meeting the love of her life however they had met, you would understand time, space, and oceans would not keep their souls apart. Rhonda is as real in SL as she is in RL. I speak from experience. I have known her for over 14 yrs. So, believe me, she has changed for no one. And although I have not met Joe in person, I know from her and what I do know of him … their souls have been waiting a long time to come together

By: Rhonda Lillie

Rhonda Lillie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:12:18 +0000

Jo,

In my opinion (since I went through that) there’s something missing in real life that draws us to Second Life… whether it’s a partner who we can converse with openly, to needing more attention, to whatever may be missing. People seek out what they are missing in many ways, it’s just that instead of going out to bars with friends, or such they decided it’s easier to stay home and go to a virtual bar. I don’t blame Second Life for creating an environment like this, because it’s not the environment that causes failed relationships, the relationships are failing because there’s something missing and the people in these relationships will do what they must do to find happiness… and in the end, is there anything wrong with moving on when you’re no longer happy?

By: Rhonda Lillie

Rhonda Lillie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:09:29 +0000

Oh, and to clear up a lot of confusion… we have met in person several times. When I first met him in person it was in London when I flew over there. ITV filmed a documentary about us, so all of our first moments are actually captured on film. It was a made for broadband series, and if you google Rhonda Lillie & Paul Hawkins and Second Lifers all in one go you can see that we have indeed met. He’s flown here to California and met my family, and I’ve been to the UK twice to meet and hang out with his. Each trip we spent over 3 weeks each time. So,… yes, we met online in Second Life,… yes we keep in touch via webcams on SKYPE and yes, we have met each other 3 times in the past few years. It’s just that for the first 2 1/2 years we were “only online” but for the past 2 1/2 years we’ve been traveling to see each other as often as we can afford to. The only reason we’re not together yet (married) is because of laws/rules/immigration… and we are working on all of that, fixing everything so we can finally be together. But, it’s working out fine and we’re happy.

By: jo

jo — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:35:56 +0000

when your rl partner is on sl, meeting new people – it’s scary, and it is so easy to feel second fiddle. It is a huge test on your relationship and can increase the distance between you, especially as they spend more time talking to others intimately, and less time talking with you, realizing, perhaps that their rl relationship isn’t what they truly want. Is that a good thing?

By: Sam Roberts - Detroit ‘67 - Official Music Video | 931 WDRQ

Sam Roberts - Detroit ‘67 - Official Music Video | 931 WDRQ — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:56:24 +0000

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By: Ze Moo

Ze Moo — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:48:03 +0000

Great articles from both Newsweek and Dusan! This deals with observations that also fit very well in the discour I was thinking of when I created the online debate group “Second Life – Is REAL!” over 18 months ago.

Please also join us there for discussing about the reality of new non-physical and live interactive narrative online communications. And what it’s relevance could be in the history of mankind… http://flickr.com/groups/slreal

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By: Rhonda Lillie

Rhonda Lillie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:25:21 +0000

I was really happy that Newsweek wrote a story on our story. I have met many couples who have met online and have lived to have successful and happy marriages. People are always skeptical about online love, but until you experience it… it can’t be understood. Because it’s too hard to fathom it. I’m very thankful for what I do have… no matter “how” I found it.

By: plot tracer

plot tracer — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:22:09 +0000

The metaverse will become more and more important with new interfaces. SL is a leap forward – one that was envisaged by SF writers such as Arthur C Clarke when describing how people can meet without travel. SL relationships and friendships are every bit – and more – personal and real experiences as letter correspondence. We hold up love letters as a great literary and “real” experience. Two people – or more where friendships are concerned – meeting and working/playing/loving together in a “metaverse” is most definately as real as any other relationship (the only sense not stimulated is smell…:)

SL is also a place where politics can be fought/debated and agreement found through an interface where the consequences of war etc can be seen as, well, lack of communication, hence, useless. No-one wins. People who use SL regularly usually get over disagreements and come to some sort of agreement and find they can work together.

Those on the left can argue/ fight/ disagree and find what unites them by joining sl left unity.