ONLINE RELATIONSHIP:
REAL OR FANTASY?
Online dating is becoming a common sight in our society these days.
This phenomenon is not surprising at all; chat rooms and
social networks have allowed many of us to talk and voice our opinions freely;
simply because, these sites provide a sense of anonymity and disinhibition.
People are more willing to self-disclose online—because more often than not, it
is the people in our lives who are the ones causing our problems; also, we are
afraid we would be judged by those around us. Friendships are then forged; and,
relationships formed. Yet the question lies: Are online relationships real? Or
are they simply based on fantasy?
While some
people can argue that we should never “dismiss online relationships as
fantasy”—because real feelings are involved, as seen from the example of Thomas Montgomery who became so jealous of his online partner
being involved with his co-worker and shot him dead—I feel that online
relationships are no more than a figment of our imagination of the ideal
relationship.
Why so, you would ask?
Joseph Walther’s hyperpersonal theory would actually explain
my point:
1) Online senders often carefully emphasize
those aspects of self which make them attractive to others; thus, increasing
their appeals.
2) They edit their messages before sending
them, creating high-quality conversations.
By putting forth
only the most ideal characteristics of one self to the other party, coupling
with the lack of emphasis on physical presence—which promotes free and genuine conversation,
this makes it such that there is no real or clear understanding of the person
you are “dating”. So, is this still considered as dating when the most
fundamental thing to have in a relationship is to understand and be real to
each other?
Such
relationships are most probably able to survive for a short while; yet in the
long term they would start to feel the strain, especially when both parties
want to get serious and move on to having a relationship in real life. This is
because real life relationship is another whole new level of challenge to be
faced such as dealing with immediate emotions. They might then realise that
communication between them is not as easy as it seems online.
Below is a site that teaches you how to maintain an online
relationship!
What do you
think? Online relationships: effective, or not? (;
No comments:
Post a Comment