solis

My sojourn into this strange new realm of internet communication continues. When I first stumbled into this site's chat room in September last year, I could barely follow the conversation. In fact, I couldn't follow it at all. It was like coming into a room of 30 people all talking at once with me bouncing around not knowing who to listen to or what to say or what the hell I was doing there. With the aid of some kind-hearted souls I found my feet, started to participate, connected with people and found myself enjoying the new experience. In time, I was introduced to audio-chat as well as the more personal communication of IM's and MSN Messenger. This experience has been unique and yet continues to produce a certain anxiety - the feeling that the relationships (I use the word 'relationship' in its broadest sense) I have formed with people here are just an illusion, as if those connections I have made could at any time disappear into the ether without a trace. It is a little frightening, but then - is it any different from how relationships are formed in the "real world". One important difference is distance. People you meet in the "real world" usually live near you, and so if you meet someone with whom you strongly connect with, there is the opportunity to further the relationship in real life. The internet removes distance, and yet this is only an illusion, because the distance is still there. Any relationship you form with someone on the other side of the world will, in all likelihood, be forever trapped inside the computer by the harsh practical realities of the real world. Friendships can perhaps survive and develop in this environment - relationships (in the romantic sense) I think cannot. We occasionally hear about the heart-warming story of an internet relationship from across the globe which blossoms into a real life fairytale marriage. I read about one in Women's Weekly the other day while waiting at a pathologist. But how many stories of heart-break do we never hear about? Internet lovers who develop a relationship with the nave faith that they will one day be together only to be crushed, in the end, by this illusion. They say love will find a way. Can you fall in love over the internet?