No longer in 'the game'

It's hard sometimes. Although my net time has certainly decreased, I still spend a lot of time in cyberworld, and I remember when I had many who kept me company whilst doing so. Conversation ebbed and flowed -- I'd often have five or six windows open at the same time. The companionship was something to be treasured, I realize this so much now, when it is all gone.

Games changed the way people communicate. Now it is only done if you are within 'the game'. Leaving 'the game' means dissolution of friendships forged in shared cyber experience. You tell yourself that things will continue, that friends you've been in touch with for years would never forget. But they do.

I feel lonely today, in a cyber way. I miss the times I'd log on and watch my ICQ (do people still use that program?) light up like a Christmas tree. Today, I log on and check my yahoo list to see two, maybe three people there. Most are away -- if I say hello, sometimes it is hours or days til they respond, if at all.

I don't take it personally -- it isn't ME that they are shafting, it is the fact that I am no longer one of THEM. I've successfully broken away from an online game that I found too boring, too expensive or too time consuming to play.

I am just too busy outside of 'the game' to keep playing.

Perhaps I am not so lonely after all...