And yet, she's sleeping in the room next door while you're on the internet :p

This bothers me, too. I can't believe my ears when people suggest that sitting on the Internet is actually anti-social. It's one of the most social things you can do, as it's basically undiluted communication.

Idiots.

> And yet, she's sleeping in the room next door while you're on the internet

I was gonna say that! But seriously, it's true that the Internet allows for more social interaction. And often it's more enlightening because I find that most of my non-Internet-based social interaction involves several pints and a few shots for afters, which leads to what's known as bollockspeech. Not that I haven't transferred that to comments made on here though...

And the Internet is the only place I can bitch about certain things like Dwarf or whether David Tennant is a shit Doctor, or my fascination with space and time in general because frankly no-one I know could give a fuck. I mean, one of my mates thinks that Who is just a crappy kids show and because of that I pretend to him that I don't even watch it. How sad is that?!??!!

Oh by the way (sorry to go on), my sister met Craig Charles the other night in a club in Manchester (I think it was Liquid). She gets into this fucking private area that Coronation Street 'celebs' go to just because her boyfriend is mates with a fucking camerman at fucking Granada (sorry for that outburst). Anyway, when she told us this my dad was there and he said 'hey, you want to be careful being around him, he's dodgy that one' which pissed me off no end, as you can imagine. So I ended up having a big argument with my dad over CRAIG CHARLES for fuck's sake! Never thought that would happen.

I met my wife on the internet. It's our 5th wedding anniversary next month.

In all honesty, it can go either way depending on the mental state of the person. I've gone both ways in the past. At one point, I got caught up playing a MUD. I'd sit up all night playing it (ignoring my b/f) and then play all day at work. It was not only the game but the social aspects - I chatted to friends on it and supported allies. I nearly got sacked for it, and my b/f and I did split up over it. After I'd moved back in with my parents I moved into chat, again spending days at a time glued to my screen (man you should have seen my phone bills). However, it was on there I made other friends, that I meet up with IRL, and of course my now husband. Theres a fine line between being social online, and being anti-social offline. It's all too easy to cross and this is where problems start.

Yes, but that was misuse of the internet rather than the medium itself, which is what John was getting annoyed at. Misuse of anything is a problem: for example, John and I got drunk at a friend's house Friday night, where we were considered to be quite social. If we rolled up that drunk at work this morning, we would be considered anti-social. It's the assumption that ANY interaction with the internet is isolating that is wrong.