See, as a student of anthropology I'm inclined to say that technically there's no such thing as completely "unmediated" reality, so neither "real life" nor digitally-mediated relationships can be considered more "authentic" than the other.

Rather, I think there are authenticities; it is possible to have meaningful and honest interaction through the internet just as it is possible to have superficial or frivolous interaction offline - in a lot of ways, they're just too different kettle of fish.

Mostly I'm concerned with being reflective about the whole matter. While I don't share kleinbl00's idea that internet mediation leads to social atrophy, I also don't like uncritical, sweeping statements that all digitally-mediated communication is therefore okay and super cool.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense; I'm a bit drunk.

As for the whole mindful living thing... thenewgreen, may I just say, thanks for recording New Kind of Me. At first I didn't like it, because I had a different idea of living in the moment that I didn't think much of. But now I grok it a lot better, and listening to that song really strikes me somewhere profound. Thanks, man!

Now send me your first album already! :P