Sasha Brown-Worsham writes on thestir: "This gives new meaning to the phrase, 'he's having a meaningful relationship with his right hand.'"The Canberra Times is the latest mainstream media outlet taking up the story:
"...what would prompt Coffin to do something like this and, indeed, how many people out there are playing with imaginary friends well into adulthood?LOL!
University of Canberra assistant professor in the Centre for Applied Psychology in the faculty of health, James Neill, has an extra interest in social networking.
He says it's hard to work out what Coffin's motivations might be, but creating personas, especially online, is widespread and common as it ''permits, facilitates and celebrates fake identity''.
A practice he calls ''sockpuppetry'' is common on Wikipedia and it's only the occasional site such as Facebook that even insists on users presenting a genuine identity, Neill says.
''Having one's characters interact like this in a relationship on public show brings together elements of drama and literary hoax in the liveliness of a social networking and media environment.
''If [Coffin] were Barry Humphries, we'd be queuing up and buying tickets."
Tags: Xiaxue, Wendy Cheng, Peter Coffin, Kimi Kobayshi
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