Is the net the real world?

jml has just commented on his legitimate experiences of community online:

For what it's worth, I work from home with people all over world through
the Internet; many people I count as close friends are people I know
principally via the net; I have proclaimed the Gospel on the net; I've been
a peacemaker on the net; I've published on the net; I've built software that
has been given away to the internet community over the internet; I've taught
people; I've gossiped and slandered and boasted and gazed lecherously and
drunkenly slurred on the net; I've even practiced hospitality.

I can't help but feel patronized when someone says that this is not the
"real world". Were it true, it would mean I am not a real person.