I have had a serious online relationship that lasted for 6 months and am currently in a serious real life relationship for the last 8 months, so I have the benefit of having experienced them both. With the online relationship, the feelings were real. I cared for him very much. I looked forward to having someone to talk to who cared about what was happening in my life. I worried about him, too, and tried to give him advice. He even had plans to come visit me over the holidays. However, things didn't work out. I have other online friends who I will probably never meet, but I see them as real people. That being said, I decided that online wasn't enough for me. I wanted to experience real life play. Once I did, I decided to seek a real life relationship with an experienced dominant. When comparing the two, they are worlds apart. There is a huge difference in spanking yourself and being spanked. There is a huge difference in being face to face and facing a web cam. I realize that for many reasons online is all some people will ever know, and they are content to get even that much. For others who are free to do as they wish, I don't understand the pursuit of online at all. Having experienced this in the flesh, I couldn't go back to online and expect to get any satisfaction. The internet is a useful tool for gathering information and meeting people, but like my dom says....which really pisses me off since I do spend some time online.....GET A LIFE!!!!