I know whatcha mean, mish, but I prefer to think of it as EXPANDING my real world. I can't call my sisters or mom long distance every day to get recipes and talk about food, most of my neighbors and friends work all day, and I'm not into the soaps.
Altho we can't see each other, we interact like crazy. Sitting here in Virginia I'm not likely to have many daily conversations with people from other parts of the world and other areas of the U.S. We share recipes, jokes, food stories, childhood experiences, likes and dislikes, and, well...all the stuff you'd share with the people you live among, but with more variety. Y'all are pretty interesting.
Also, I also suspect this board is valuable for people who need to get things off their chest that they don't want to bring up with the "real" people in their lives. Nothing wrong with that either, and probably just as well for some of those insoluble issues.
In spite of the hours I spend here, I still get the laundry done, cook meals, hug my kid, kiss my husband, let the dogs in and out (my other part-time job), and other "real world" stuff.
OK, off the soapbox now.
