Relationships In Cyberspace Essay, Research Paper

Relationships in Cyberspace

The Internet, is an ocean of technology, a land where ease of use and instant gratification rules. It is out of this primordial computer-ooze that a whole new way of thinking and acting is forming. Lives are being built, and destroyed in this world of bits and bytes. Cyber romance is on the rise.

No one knows much anything about you. It’s strange that even without the formality of a face, relationships are spawned. Although the idea of meeting a cyber-someone is exciting, there is still something missing. You can’t sit next to them, hold their hand and look into their eyes. It seems that even without physical contact relationships seem to thrive on the Internet. Some people have even met their husband or wife over the net. Ease of use and astounding technology make it possible for a 16 year old student from Tidjikdja (Western Sahara) to converse on equal levels with a 60 year old housewife in Verkhoyansk (Siberia). The Net opens doors and spans the distance between people that never would have met under normal circumstances.

This brings up interesting opportunities, for lovers, thinkers and artists. Relationships spawn and thrive in this world of electrons and light speed communications. Often friends meet here. Sometimes enemies. Even lovers. Some say that it’s the exotic setting the Internet provides that leads to these relationships. Perhaps because it is a mysterious place, or the magical qualities of someone being with you, without physically being there. Whatever the reason people are drawn into these relationships. They are real and there out there. The problems are going to grow before they get better. The Internet, as cold and starched as it may seem, has sparked fires that have grown into love. Words on a screen turn into the thoughts and feelings even closer than physical. A bond is made, but sometimes with this bond others are broken.

Husbands and wives stay up until the small hours of the morning, hunkering over a glowing box, sharing feelings with an unseen force. They profess loves and passions unlike any they have ever felt. Sometimes its real, sometimes, they’re professing love to a 12-year-old kid. Truth has no face on the net. Although many marriages have been spawned from the net, an equal number have been destroyed because of virtual affairs.

The idea of morality comes up as well. If a relationship stays online, is it cheating? There is no contact, physical at least. Online relationships can be just as intense, and demanding as relationships started offline. As well as being just as romantic.

The Internet, as cold and formal as it may seem, has sparked fires that have grown. In the few real relationships that come from the world of cyberspace, love is not found without suffering. Quite a few wives and husbands have been left to rear the children because of a spouse that left for an Internet lover. It seems strange that a husband of 15 years would leave his wife and three children for a blip on a screen, but it’s real.

To us it seems like just words on a page. A blip on a screen that has the tendency to answer my questions, and kinda talk like a person. Remember that blip is a person. Would you walk out on the street pretending that you’re a bandit, and attempting to rob random passersby’s in the name of fantasy? You have no right to toy with others emotions via the Internet.

In conclusion; the Internet may be a place for you to go and play games. It may be a place to meet people who’s interests and likes match yours. It’s a powerful venue where words are really heard. Lies seem not to matter, and reality melts away. Is it not words that affect us the strongest? Poets, authors, playwrights, have all used the power of words for as long as language has existed. The power of words is great, and should not be underestimated.

In this world of circuits and wires, love is formed. Love for ones mind, then perhaps in time, for their body. The Net is a venue for everyone to find someone that compliments his or her own personality. Love is a wonderful thing, and the ways people meet often make the most interesting stories to tell ones children and grand children. Perhaps meeting ones wife or husband over the Net is nothing more that meeting them at the neighbourhood bus stop.

Or is it?