Kenneth Rufo of the Ghost in the Wire blog has an interesting commentary on Danah Boyd’s thesis that the virtual only complements ‘real life’, and does not replace it. I recommend reading this insightful critique of false dichotomies in full, but here is the key citation of what it is about:

Now Danah is a smart cookie, but her argument here reflects a theoretical proclivity that is common among social scientists (not that she is one), namely that the assumption is that the virtual connections of the digital world either replace or compliment the connections in the real world. She believes it’s the latter, and takes issue with those who think the former. Neither is correct; the virtual is a supplement in the Derridean sense, in that it takes the form of an addition, but ends up reconfiguring the original to which it has been added.

Kenneth further mentions immersive gaming to prove his point that the virtual is not just a supplement to the physical.