How clear is your divide between ‘real life’ and ‘internet life’?

[nige]

Everyone here is all too aware of the amount of personal information that finds its way on to the internet, information that not many years ago would have been considered private, and often information that we wouldn’t want just anyone reading. Yet, sitting behind your keyboard still feels considerably more removed from the real world.

Even within the construct of this forum, there exist areas that not all members have access to – as we communicate through the internet there seems an urge both to release masses of private information tempered by a wish to claw it back from some, but how practical is this?

Is it possible to keep your internet life and real life separate, or will they inevitably collide? If you are (like many here) a meet-goer, what was it that made you cross (perhaps the final divide) and meet up with those crazy people from the internet?

[Piggymon]

I think I'm probably far too trusting sometimes.

I post personal info thinking nobody could want to do me any harm as I'm not the type of person to get into arguments or purposely upset anyone.

I think sometimes I should guard myself a little more but then I'm a very open person and I find it hard to change that.

As for meeting up ... I love making new friends :D

[Nutcase]

I'm all over the place! A lot of my internet use is "anonymous" - I'm happy to partake online, but shy away from any real life interaction because I don't think I'd get on well with the people.

Other places, I'm more than happy to meet up and have fun with people - notably here, and on a couple of the car forums :)

I try not to post too much personal info on anywhere that is public. My facebook page has a couple of red herrings in there to (hopefully) cause problems for hackers.

[iCraig]

I used to be very cynical. The internet was the internet. Digital and intangible. What happened online stopped when I logged off.

However, with the advent of Boat Drinks and coming of age I soon realised the potential of the internet. It wasn't just full of idiots on game servers or trolls spamming your guest book, it actually contained genuine, down to earth people.

I still hold my cards fairly close to my chest, however I've shared more with the people on here than I have with my real life friends on some occasions.

In fact, calling them real life friends doesn't feel right. The people on here are real life friends, just the method of communication is different. :)

[semi-pro waster]

I am slightly careful about what I post but that is more down to my personality rather than any lack of trust in people here (or elsewhere I suppose), I simply tend to be a little bit guarded about my feelings to an extent, particularly if I don't know the person well.

I've certainly got nothing against the idea of meeting people from t'internet, I just haven't managed to do so yet although I will try to make at least one so you can see just how objectionable I am normally. ;D

[Pebs]

The two have become permanently and inextricably linked. What made me take the final step was the fact that previous meet ups had been so well advertised/photographed/talked about and there was no mention of ritual sacrifices on altars etc. I would have been far more wary going to a small meet with only one or two people.

As it turns out I have made some of my closest friends as a result :) I still don't really post any personal info anywhere other than here and the gf and even then I've toned that down a little recently.

[Will]

I generally spend time anonymously online. The only places I've ever been more "open" so to speak has been OcUK and here - on here I don't consider myself online, but just chatting to a lot of friends. On OcUK I was still relatively withdrawn I didn't share THAT much, mostly it was at meets or just a general picture of myself rather than hard facts.

I see a small difference between online and offline life, one is easier, one is more agreable.

[Dymetrie]

On BD then everyone here are my friends. Most of whom I know well IRL as well.

So for me then here is the same as chatting to my friends, because that's what I'm doing :)

[Mark]

My information is easily obtainable if you know where to look. It's the price you pay for having a 'presence' online. A few events last year made me close some of the more easily accessible 'loopholes', but there is no perfect solution.

[Stan_Lite]

I try to keep my internet personality as close to my real life personality as possible. I tend to be a very open and honest person in real life and this tends to show online. I honestly don't care what people know about me (except financial stuff etc.), I surprise myself sometimes how open and relaxed I am regarding my personal life. As such, I consider my personal life and my internet life to be (to quote Pebs) "permanently and inextricably linked".

I feel even more relaxed on here since a large number of the people on here are now personal friends and as such are welcome to ask anything about me and to use such information in any way they see fit.

I'm so glad I discovered the PC and subsequently, the internet - I can't think of anywhere else where I could meet such a nice bunch of people (most of whom are considerably younger than me) who would accept me for who I am, warts and all and welcome me into their lives and their homes.

Also, because of my work and being away for long periods of time, the internet is how I keep in touch with the majority of my family and friends - I would struggle without it - which is probably why my internet and real life personas are so close.

[HollyThirtyFive]

I still like to keep my real life different from my online life in a way, but its not so much anymore. iCraig is right, its just a different method of communication.

I remember on my first meet, me and my friend matt who posted on ocuk thought it would be a laugh and said if its rubbish we'll just go out in London..however it turned out we had a great time so I came back for more :-) although I do get quite nervous sometimes. Aside from this forum I have actually met two of my bestest friends through the internet. Peppi, I met through a Brighton music forum 2 years ago for a band, my first "internet meet" and a more recent internet meet is my guitarist Neil. We get on so amazingly well, and iv known him only a few months.

The people I've met on here are the nicest, safest bunch of people ever!! Its just a shame we all live so far apart!

[Feek]

Is it possible to keep your internet life and real life separate, or will they inevitably collide? If you are (like many here) a meet-goer, what was it that made you cross (perhaps the final divide) and meet up with those crazy people from the internet?

I've tried as much as I can to keep them seperate but the line does eventually fade and it becomes pretty much impossible. I'm pretty much the same person online as I am when you meet me fact to face (I think) except I do still try and keep personal stuff away from the online side.

Regarding meeting people from the internet, well this goes back a long time for me to well before anyone really had heard of the internet! I used to be very active on some usergroups on Micronet 800 which was the general consumer side of BT's online Prestel service and we'd get together for meets. I got involved with the running of The Midnight Micronetters Club and we organised a tour around the country over a two week period in a campervan meeting members in the evenings for beer and giggles. This was 21 years ago! Not much has changed really :)

[Pheebs]

I'm a cross between dym and piggy! My online life is this forum, GF, possibly facebook (which is much of this forum and other friends only) and that's it. I'm therefore amidst friends and I am a very open person really!

I canny help it. Words and mumbo jumbo fall out of my mouth (or finger tips) and I tell people whatever I think/feel/whatevers happening in my life!

There isn't a distinguishable line as far as I see! It's all a big (normally drunken) blur ;)

[Dee]

It was a New Years resolution of mine to make a meet in 2006, come February that year, I had already acheived it, and like Pebs, made some very close mates along the way :)

We are never far from the internet in our house, and the fact we have Lopkat as neighbours, we cant escape it!!!! :evil:

[Jonny69]

I'm a cross between dym and piggy!
Pics please :)

I'm glad I met up with some of you guys. Like Holly my first meetup was the OcUK London meet and I really didn't know what to expect. I figured I could always disappear if I needed to but yeah, everyone except Dym was quite normal ;D

[Matblack]

The internet is just an extention of who I am in real life, its like a phone for the people I know to keep in touch and like a pub to meet people who I would like to get to know and possibly be friends with.

Before joining OcUK I didn't have much of a friendship base, just a few people locally, now I have loads of friends up and down the country :)

MB

[Daz]

We are never far from the internet in our house
Indeed not :) Laptop, PC, TV, radio and games consoles - all online, and all mostly used to communicate with friends and family, be that by email, forum or parading the cats to Feek over Xbox Live (:D).

To answer the OP I tend to think on the internet split in two - BD and my friends, and the rest of it. My internet life is squarely in the former and to that end I'm not much different here than I am in real life - and that extends to what I share about myself. The rest of it is simply I resource I rely on heavily, I tend not to see my 'internet life' existing there.

[Treefrog]

Hmm, internet friends are just RL friends that I don't happen to see on a regular basis, that's all. Whether we talk in the pub, on forums, at a meet, on the phone or by text is just how we happen to be communicating at that time, nothing more. That's my take on it anyway.

As for crossing the final divide, it was the Towers meet in '05. Having chatted in threads on OcUK I definitely wanted to meet up with some of these nutters and see if they were the same IRL. Utch is just down the road - a nice ride out down the old A50 too - and I could always leave and not meet up at Alton Towers the next day if anything didn't feel right. I enjoyed meeting everyone in the pub and woke up the next morning in my own bed, with both kidneys and not married to a Russian shot-putter, so things seemed to be going okay :) One of my better decisions.

To the stage that, before the camping meet '05 I deliberately told people that I was going camping in South Wales with some people off the internet - just to see their reaction ;D
Evil of me, I know ;)

[Justsomebloke]

The only people i have met are those through a deal on M&M, so i haven't crossed that line in that respect yet.
As for my past i would rather it wasn't available to any Tom Dick or Harriet but if it became public knowledge then i would just have to live it with it the same as i do irl.
I am far to basic a guy to hide behind a front & am who i am anywhere & everywhere including the Interweb.
Also there are people on Oc & on my Facebook & MSN that know me irl even my own scatty family are about here & there :)