Does gaia take away from RL interaction?

[Kalzonie]

GA MCG
Does gaia take away from RL interaction or does it make it stronger?
My intrest behind this is, does gaia make you interactive with RL people less as your spending all your time on gaia. Or has it made you more confident certain subjects from reading them on gaia and thus makes it easier to talk about them in RL. Or has it made you more confident to speak out in RL when you woukd normaly shy away?
I myself in some ways has made me more confident to talk out(Im kinda shy) and try to make more friends in RL.  

[Razin Frostdrake]

it takes a bit away . . . not much since i've always been on a comp . . . i prefer surfing the net over doing things . . . least since all my friends moved away to college . . .  

[Amy Obscurite]

I think it helps my social skills. I used to have a terrible stutter, but now it's only mediocre. I guess I've become more confident in speaking, because now I know that my opinion actually does matter. 3nodding  

[Kalzonie]

Amy Obscurite

I think it helps my social skills. I used to have a terrible stutter, but now it's only mediocre. I guess I've become more confident in speaking, because now I know that my opinion actually does matter. 3nodding

Thats how I feel because I taught me that people will agree with me and I do get on with other people if I try.  

[Grunni AIDS]

I'm not as shy and quiet in real life since I've joined. It's helped me talk to people more easily and not be scared that they're going to brush me off from the beginning.  

[Parasox v2]

Gaia hasn't changed me at all socially. Im still as socially inept as ever sweatdrop
I'm still painfully shy online and IRL  

[Eriwain]

In genral the internet has made me worse sad
I used to be horribly shy IRL, but im now convinced that I should be Queen of the World( I totally should be BTW, I am awesome) the internet just gives me a larger audience to tell and a bigger group of morons to base my assumption on^_^
IRL,im still pretty shy. The internet gives most people a common ground though. Makes it easier to start a converstion and it has made the generation and culture gaps much smaller.

As for Gaia, I wouldnt know half of the internet things as I do. Like Carameldansen. I'd be out of the loop. And like I said, it makes the generation gaps much smaller. I dont think I would know how to interact with people who are <20 IRL if I didnt use it.  

[Cattrain]

Wait... I thought Gaia was IRL... cry I live on the internet more than real life, but that's just how I have always been. I have plenty of offline time as well. Gaia doesn't really take away from my real life, real life always comes first, then Gaia...  

[Beyond Betrayal]

Beyond Birthday had the eyes of a shinigami since he was born.
He knew your name before you said it.
He knew the time of death of every person he met.

It's stayed the same xD Then again, I'm horribly shy online and offline.
(I don't reply to a lot of things on here, comments, PMs, replies, etc. due to being shy. I still lurk a lot. I post in about 20% of the threads I read.)
I've been shy for years, and it doesn't seem like that's changing. Unless I make considerable effort, but the whole I'm shy thing, and starting that effort would probably result in me with a heart attack xDD

...I hardly need to explain just what effect
this would have on his personality.

 

[Rena Ragdoll]

Here's my take on the subject: Gaia *CAN* take away from your personal life, but ONLY if you let it. Nothing can forcefully take your personal life away from you. Personally, I'm only online on weekends and any other days off I get, and even then I have time to hang out with my friends and spend time with my daughter. Even today, my friend came over, I modded his psp for him, and we hung out, and now i'm watching Peter Pan with my daughter.

People who get addicted easily are more likely to lose their personal lives to their computer in general, not just Gaia. Most of it's in ridiculously overdone games like World of Warcraft.  

[A Beautiful Stranger]

I'm not shy. I just really don't like the people I am around in RL. I would much prefer to talk to people here. So in essence I suppose you could blame Gaia for being cool..and attracting (for the most part) cool people...but really that's just silly.

I do agree...it's the persons choice, not the website.