Dating on the Internet Essay -- Research Cyberdating Internet Essays

Dating on the Internet It has become today's method of communication, the wave of the future. The necessity to leave the home to do such things as shop for clothes or to go to the bank is diminishing. Business is being conducted more frequently from the home. Students will soon be able to interact with their teachers and fellow students while sitting in their bedrooms. The Internet will overtake all forms of personal interaction, and it stands to reason that this includes dating. From foreign pen-pals to heated Cybersex, the number of people who log on each day is growing rapidly. Those who used to race home from school to run outside and play, now race home to meet their best friend in a chat room somewhere; they've never met and yet they're soul mates. There are people who take these relationships so seriously, they will travel almost anywhere to meet the person of their dreams. Cyberdating is here to stay. According to Betty in California, it is the "nineties way for busy professional people to connect." She emphasizes, "Bars are out; computers are in!" (Women's Wire News). A survey conducted through Women's Wire News of 375 people revealed that 61% of those responding would "consider turning a Cyber-affair into a real-life one." (Women's Wire News). This being the case, what does this mean for society? Is personal socialization and face-to-face communication a thing of the past? Increasing reliance on computers certainly draws society in that direction. But possibly this isn't as new as people might like to think. Perhaps this is the direction in which society has been moving since the invention of the telephone. Fran in New Jersey supports this: I wonder if people got this worked up about the telephone? Because tha... ...ditha in Florida, Women's Wire News). Work Cited: "Do Boys Just Wanna Have Fun? Male Gender-Switching in Cyberspace (and how to detect it)," http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/ psycyber/ genderswap.html (May 1996,4/7/97) Sara Pitman. "From Keyboards to Human Contact: Love Relationships Through Computer-Mediated Communications," http://edie. cprost.sfu.ca/~chiklink/ sarticle.html (undated, 3/24/97) John Suler, Ph.D."Communicative Subtlety in Multimedia Chat How Many Ways Can You Say "Hi" at the Palace?" http://ww1.rider.edu/ ~suler/psycyber/hilucy.html (March1997, 4/7/97) John Suler, Ph.D. "The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Visual Chat Environments," http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/ psyav.html (May 1996, 3/24/97) "Women's Wire News, Cyberdating: The Dirt," http://women.com/wwire/archives/html/backtalk/ 960221.ba.html (1997, 3/24/97)