The virtually extended self: searching for meaning in online worlds

Abstract

A man wakes to the same world that has greeted him every morning for the past 29 years. It’s a world he isn’t very fond of, and it’s a world that hasn’t given him much opportunity to change. He lives in practical isolation, caring for his house bound mother, a duty left to him after an abusive father finally left a few years back. He doesn’t have a job, nor has he ever. He doesn’t have friends in the real world, although he would like some, and he doesn’t have a normal life, although this is something he also desires. This is a man who lives with depression and anxiety, in a world where his needs and wants go largely unfulfilled. One day a seemingly insignificant decision, based on his underlying desire for improvement in life, had an outcome that would impact his life as much as, if not more ...