Will People have an online life in the future ?

I have been spending so much time online lately, that a thought once occurred to me. “Will people in future have an online life?” Would people start living in this physical world as well as a cyber world, coexisting at both places simultaneously.Sounds scary and far-fetched, but it could be true. With significant technological progress, this may not be far behind.  Imagine people plugging into the internet  (Something like Matrix) with a unique identity and interacting virtually with people all over the world. Businesses, meetings, social parties etc. everything happening online with only a virtual presece. With the advent of Web 2.0 and the popularity of social networking sites like myspace, flickr, facebook, orkut etc..  people far off talk more frequently than the next-door-neighbours. I personally don’t know the guys living on the first floor of my apartment, but know very well my friends in Australia, UK and US.
This topic is open-ended and we know that the technology certainly is available to make this possible for a few people. But for it to integrate into the general life-stream? Well it looks quite distant now. What do u say ?