Have just sat down at my keyboard after watching the documentary.  The first thing I have to say is well done to Rivers Run Red, they made our metaverse look fantastic.  In fact, I’d be really interested to know if there is a spike of interest and join-ups following tonight’s broadcast.  I think there will be…

I know of many couples who have gotten together in RL via SL and have successfully managed to make it work, so I was really happy for the second couple featured in the programme.  It was so lovely to see their wedding, and nice to meet the mother of the bride and best man:) That was a great twist, and it was sweet when her mum said that she’d felt genuine emotions.

But it was Carolyn’s story that was saddest to watch.  I have no doubt that raising kids is a hard thing to do, and I’m sure SL was the perfect escape from reality that she needed.   Isn’t that why we all participate in world after all?  But for her husband it was clearly torturous.  It would appear that he adored her but it obviously didn’t fulfill Carolyn in the way that she needed.  Elliot did in SL, BUT  but from the instant they met in RL you could see their was no body language between them and he obviously had no feelings for her at all.  I felt really awful watching that bit..she must have been utterly devastated. He certainly looked uncomfortable, and I don’t think he managed to make eye contact with her once.(Although of course we don’t know the full story, I wonder how much ended up on the cutting room floor?)

There are issues to be explored here.  Was it proper that Elliott initially built up a relationship with a RL married woman with four children? It was shown that he was aware of her RL situation, so wouldn’t it have been chivalrous for him to back off? What about Carolyn’s husband;why didn’t he become harder and present his wife with an ultimatum because it was obvious that it was causing such great pain to their children? It did cross my mind at one point that perhaps Carolyn’s husband should’ve just gone in world and twatted Elliott with a big stick, but perhaps that’s just being a tad base.  (Jez put it very eloquently- ‘Cut the f *****g plug off the computer’)

I really hope that they manage to work things out, as they both seemed lovely people, but my gut tells me that it won’t be easy for them.  Carolyn has needs that are clearly not being met and if they can be met in SL then she will go down that route again and again.  SL is like that, it gets under your skin and it becomes your world,and yes I do speak from experience here!

The programme proved a very valid point -we all need to take a reality check from SL every so often. 

Yes, this wonderful virtual world of ours is to be enjoyed and exploited, but not at the the expense of our real lives.  If used properly, it can be a wonderful way of creating opportunities and realising ambitions in the real world, but it is a means to an end, and not the sum of all parts.  Out of all the parallels that it shares with real life, it’s unfortunate that heartbreak has to be one of them.