Outstanding article about life online (found via editrx's livejournal).

It's about the "Cult of 'Turn Off Your Computer'," those people who love showing up in online discussions to point out that those participating should "get lives" and "turn off the computer" and "go outside":

Those who advise us to unplug and get a life are operating under the false assumption that what happens online isn't real. This is why most members of the cult of Turn Off Your Computer (or TOYC, for short) post anonymously. Such individuals play online as if they were playing a Playstation video game. They keep their actual selves safely back in the real world.

Yup. This mentality has never made sense for me. The person I am online is the same person I am offline. Read the whole article.

This article couldn't help but remind me of the arguments some science fiction fans have had about badge names at conventions, too (some people go to cons to play, for others of us . . . cons are family reunions).