Reality?

So today I was (while also avoiding my research paper due at the end of the week) looking at some philosophy debates online, and I noticed one that really caught my eye. It was questioning reality. These kinds of things really get me because I sometimes find myself questioning existence in itself too. The initial post said this:

Reality, what is reality? do I exist? do you exist? if I chat with a girl on webcam that I have never met and will never meet, or have any intentions of ever meeting, is she real? is she alive? am I real? am I alive? this is a tricky subject.

To be completely honest, it is really hard to argue with this. How do we know we are real? The world today is so obsessed with and needing proof for everything, so where's the proof of this? How do we know that this isn't just a dream or an illusion? I know at least 50% of the people who read this will be like "This is ridiculous" or "Is this girl high?" but it's a valid question.

The reply post I found the most intriguing was as follows:

Could the world be an illusion? You ask.

Even if it is an illusion, we're bound by rules of that illusion. Somebody stabs us with a knife and we die.

Therefore, it does not matter whether we're in the real world or in an illusion. It's the rules that count and we're bound by them, so far as I can tell.

Well it's a good thing someone said something like this or I would never have been brought back to reality, or at least my "reality." I like the thought that goes with this too. Regardless of whether this is real or not, or if things are the way you want it or not, but the fact is there are going to be rules, at least rules of the way the world works which we have no choice but to follow. Life has guidelines, and so does our "reality."