Wear Your Sweatpants, Bring Your Dog discussion

We are all connected via huge social media communities, but increased online interaction often comes at the expense of the type of local, real-life community provided by Monica’s Café and Julian’s Supper Club. What do these communities give us that virtual ones do not?

Real-life communities let us see each other's humanity, not the edited/filtered online versions like Alice created. The give and take of live discourse allows for talking out differences, opening our eyes to other points of view, and maybe even meeting in the middle. Online discourse doesn't allow interpretation of tone of voice, facial expression, etc!

I couldn't agree more. I do think that online conversation allows us to be more honest and vulnerable than we might be willing to be in real life. That can be a real double edged sword, though!