Married couple playing checkers

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting two friends in person who I’ve known for a few years in Second Life. We met in the Skeptical Buddhist Sangha, and they have been really supportive in the new island  I’ve been creating, Secular Community.

To my delight, they were exactly what I expected, the people I had come to know, trust, and enjoy, and  interestingly they even look just like their avatars.

I have met many people over the years, where our relationship began online then transferred to in the physical, and some of these have been the most sincere, enjoyable friends I’ve made.

It’s interesting because I talk to a lot of people who feel that the online presence is deceptive, untrustworthy, and that everyone is really a 600 pound man behind his computer persona. Not true. That’s not to say there aren’t some, but it has not been my experience at all. In fact, I find the communities and the individuals I meet online to be very sincere, honest, and friendly.

Of course, that may have a lot to do with the types of places and the people I attract online. In Second Life, I tend to hang out in Buddhist communities, and the island I have created for secular people. People come with a sincere interest in learning core Buddhism, and people come to the Secular Community with a real need of support for their lack of beliefs, with fear of their physical communities, and with confusion over family who still have a multitude of beliefs that foster anger and prejudice.

Additionally, I have found support in online groups, such as the Divorced Women group, and a support group I created for people with heel injuries. I have found there to be a lot of sincerity in people, and real friendships blossoms out of common interests and need for support. Many of these interactions can translate well back into the physical world.

This is not to say you can trust everyone online or that all people in these types of groups are going to be sincere. There are many who hide behind anonymity, and use it to behave badly. And some go online with the intention of playing out a persona. But when friendships form over the course of time, it’s generally based on mutual sincerity and common interests, just like in the physical world.

Online communities have really allowed us to broaden the possibilities for friendship as now we can connect globally as well as locally. The Internet allows us to share common interests and concerns, provide support as well as friendship, and has increased human communication in many ways. In addition, friends and family find it fun to meet in virtual communities and mingle with other, like the couple in the pix above. They are married in the physical and in SL.

It’s wonderful to meet friends in the physical after sharing an virtual community with them, people who I likely would never had met had it not been for places like Second Life.

Tags: Communities, friendships, Relationships, support, virtual

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 4:25 am and is filed under Buddhism, Communities, Relationships, second life, SL, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.