(continuation of extract from from Tim Jordan's book Cyberpower)

Julie's own social life blossomed online. She made more and more friends and began to practise online sex, first tentatively and then flamboyantly. Her online greeting began to reflect her huge online presence: 'HI!!!!!!!'. Offline her life blossomed as well. She met and married an astonishingly supportive husband, travelled and resurrected her career, but she maintained her rigid refusal to meet any of her online friends offline.

Julie and her online life began to seem a little too much of everything to be true. Some disabled women felt uncertain about the ease with which Julie's marriage overcame her disabilities. And then disaster struck. Julie became seriously ill with an obscure disease and hovered near death. As with . . . many other instances, the virtual community mobilised in an astonishing show of support and collective grief. Even so, Julie's husband respected Julie's wish not to meet her online friends and deflected any attempt to see her. To great joy, Julie pulled through and recovered.

But someone worked out ...