It's important.
Only recently have I begun to resurrect the distinction between 'online' and 'real life.' The reason for that is because the majority of people who use online communications evidently do not comprehend that it is not different in any way from "real life."
Obviously the Internet isn't any different from "real life." The medium one uses to communicate with another human being doesn't define the communication as being "real" or "not real." However, since in my experience, it has become clear that most humans behave as if there is a distinction between relationships with other humans based on the media by which they communicate, I've decided to include awareness of that erroneous perception in my daily relationships - many of which take place online.
An interesting metaphor is the "video-game metaphor." As generations of computer gamers move into situations of having more-or-less "actual lives," I see them projecting the video-game metaphor upon their interactions - especially those involving computer communications. There are times when I will be conversing with someone when it becomes exceedingly clear that they are "playing a game with me."
Observations like this have given me enough insight to decide to reconstruct a barrier affording me some distance from the way other people tend to use computers. My own insights notwithstanding, if the people in a room don't think it's real, it's not.
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