Alexandra Samuel presents and interesting TED talk where she argues a separation should not be made between the on line and off lien worlds, particularly with regard to somehow assuming the the off line world is somehow the "real world" and the on line world is somehow not real.
This fits in well with my ideas of a digital presence, and while different from a physical presence is no less real. Alexandra makes some interesting points in differentiating between being real an a virtual/physical sense but also being real in terms of how you interact with the world. Many people, she argues are "more real" when interacting on line, than when interacting in real life. In some ways, connecting with other people is real - and there there are many ways to achieve this; the web provide more options - but they are real options.