As a faithful follower of the ignorant common earthlin's definition of reality, I believe that internet is a part of the real world. It is a microcosm comprised of those souls who are fortunate enough to belong to it. The word, 'virtual' shouldn't be a description of internet since while one is sitting down, fondling the keyboard, he/she messes around with real people! It is like talking through the telephone. People exchange idea and, to make it more realistic, they meet each other and become friends, lovers, enemies, and whatever one can think of... If one follows Heisenberg's reality, "You can't observe anything without changing it", he/she is justified to claim internet to be virtual. It's when one deals the people they talk to as monsters or friendly warriors he/she encounters in a Dungeon & Dragons game. I guess that's why the members of internet family rarely exceed a 12 year old in mental age, even though most of them are nice, gentle, cultured, blah blah in their appearance and behavior when they are not a bunch of characters on the screen. With all these junks above, I want to close with my opinion that the internet should be viewed as a mode of communication rather than a dragon's lair where you have to fight the despicable monster in order to save the princess.