An AP story on November 15, 2008, entitled "Husband’s Virtual Affairs Push Real-Life Wife to Seek Divorce" caught my eye. See the entire story at either
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/267323.php or
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081114/ap_on_fe_st/eu_britain_virtual_affair
The article states that "a virtual affair is ending a real-life marriage in southwest England.
Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life — an online community where players adopt personas called avatars, mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds. ‘I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game,’ Taylor told the South West News Service press agency. ‘It looked really affectionate. He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more.’"
The article goes on to say that "the online drama shows how emotionally invested some people have become in their virtual identities, said Ellen Helsper, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute who has studied the impact of the Web on relationships. ‘For a while there was this impression that as long as it's online, it doesn't matter. But research has shown it's not a separate world,’ she said, adding that infidelity was ‘just as painful, whether it's electronic or physical.’"
The distraction of the internet and internet relationships have long been a cause of divorce but this is a new angle. There are already many web sites that allow a person to complete divorce documents online. Perhaps the next step is for people to experience a virtual divorce online to see if a real divorce is appropriate for them. Time will tell!
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