> They could have very rich online lives, where they are able to socialize - even very freely, competently, and confidently. They could be very creative online,

> They could have very rich online lives, where they are able to socialize - even very freely, competently, and confidently. They could be very creative online, or learning, producing, and contributing to all sorts of projects, from open source programming, bug fixing, or documenting to contributing to projects like Wikipedia to creating art or music, and so on. They could have many friends online, or perhaps the focus of a scholar. They could even be helping others on all sorts of online forums. They could, but they don't. To be blunt, you seem to be romanticizing the hikikomori phenomenon and know nothing about the reality of it. Having spent some time in online communities where they hang out and flirted with the edges of the syndrome myself, these people are not doing anything resembling what you describe. They are, as the article says, "...spend[ing] the day daydreaming, reading, roaming the internet, flipping TV channels, floating in [their] room". They are most certainly not doing anything meaningful or constructive and they, themselves, are unhappily aware of it. It is an _illness_, for pity's sake.