Hi Duane,
Interesting use of the word real in the blurb "Social Networking in Plain English." Lee LaFever used the phrase real world at least three times. Kind of begs the question... Are my relationships in cyberspace real? Virtual reality games like Second Life are starting to create substantial space between what's "real" and what's "not real." I thought it was fascinating back in the primary season that political candidates actually opened offices in Second Life.
Obviously my connections in Facebook are something other than imaginary. In the 1980's an American philosopher named Hilary Putnam described a puzzle. He asked a question somthing like this: "How do I know that my brain hasn't been removed from my body and suspended in some kind of a vat of nutrients to keep it alive by a mad scientist who is stimulating my brain with electrical impulses to make me 'see' and 'feel' all the things that I think are around me?" It was a modern restatement of Descartes and his skepticism. Both men functioned on the assumption that their choices where binary: either my dog (sitting here staring at me) is "real" or it's "not real."
Lee LaFever's language is typical in discussions of the Internet, and it makes me wonder if were not developing a third alternative in the real/not real dichotomy...
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