Domination & submission _ the BDSM relationship handbook ( PDFDrive )

The Virtual Line
There are many who will probably disagree with me on this, but I believe that
there are three kinds of people who seek out the online BDSM culture.
The Reality Geek. This first category consists of those who live a BDSM
lifestyle in real-life and simply want a convenient and entertaining way to
connect online with like-minded friends, or make new ones. For those people,
the line that separates their virtual lives from their real ones may be flexible,
fuzzy or may not exist at all. There is little or no cognitive dissonance between
the two environments. In fact, for many of the people in this category, the
internet is not considered a virtual world or as a completely different
environment at all. It is viewed simply as one more facet of their real-world
environment; another mode of communication that is not unlike talking on the
telephone or texting. Just as most people would never characterize a telephone
conversation as an alternate life, the people in this group typically don’t think of
a graphic internet chat room as one, either.
The Toe-Dipper. This second group consists of people who wish to explore the
lifestyle virtually before making the plunge into the real-life culture. For these
people, it may be necessary due to their present circumstances, or simply
preferable, to learn as much as they can virtually before considering a decision to
adopt the lifestyle in reality. The individuals in this group must, out of
necessity, consider the internet and their real-lives as two separate realities with
no significant overlap. For them, the separating line is usually quite distinct,
even though it may move or get fuzzier over time as they grow more confident
and become more willing to cross the line. In short, the separating line is there,
but it is often moving or temporary.
The Fantasizer. Third and finally, there are those who, for whatever reason,
cannot or have no desire to live a BDSM lifestyle in reality, and so they do it
virtually. There are many good and valid reasons why this may be so, and it
isn’t our place to judge another person’s reasons for doing so. Long ago, I had a
friend in the online BDSM lifestyle who, I learned years later, was a paraplegic,
and had been confined to a wheelchair since his childhood. Another
acquaintance was afflicted with agoraphobia, and hadn’t left her apartment in
almost a decade. There may also be family or career considerations which make
the pursuit of BDSM in reality an impractical lifestyle choice for some. It