Thursday, October 23, 2014

Cyber Love

Brushaud Stanislaus



       Online dating in my eyes has certainly evolved into something spectacular. If you were to ask me about how I felt about people who participated in online relationships; I would have told you that they were strange, weird, and disturbing. In this current age it seems that online dating is getting to be the new norm of our culture. There are tons of online dating companies that currently exist and are very popular due to the millions of people who are engaged in them. I personally have never experienced online dating but I do know of people who have. Tinder for example is an up and coming online dating company with the help of Facebook, bringing people together from all over and matching people with potential mates. But on the darker side of online dating there is a term commonly used known as “catfishing.” This is the act of someone luring another person into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona. In other words, creating a fake profile and having a relationship with a real person without them knowing.

         This seems to be one of the major downfalls in online dating at least if the person is not technologically advanced. With Tinder attached to Facebook it helps as an deterrence for people to create fake profiles. Though, Facebook has not been able to stop the re-occurrence of people getting catfished.  Catfish: The TV Show is a television series on MTV, helps expose the many lies and truths behind online dating, many stories resulting from Facebook. There are real life people with real stories of their online dating experiences and finally meeting them in person for the first time. There are times that a happy ending will result but majority of the time, the end result is not so sweet.

         When I think of online dating I think of  Kip from Napoleon Dynamite and his online girlfriend 
 Lafawnduh. “I mean we chat online for like two hours every day, so I guess you can say things are getting serious.” As funny as that sounds this is exactly what our culture has turned into. Napoleon Dynamite came out a while ago and that quote alone opened up my eyes. I thought it was strange and not normal but I must certainly take back my words. Kip did happen to meet his online lady Lafawnduh and in reality the two of them worked out great. As unpredictable of a couple as they would look like together, you can see happiness. It was a type of happiness worth opening your mind to if you are interested in online dating.  Online dating of course is not for everyone but for shy people, busy people, and even lazy people; this direction is certainly the course for them.


          Personally I prefer meeting people face to face. Though I can easily understand why people choose online dating over meeting people face to face, but reading someone’s body language to me I feel is very important to know if it is going to go anywhere. To be technical my focus is on non verbal communications versus forms of CMC. There are pros and cons to both online dating and face to face dating for example the catfishing, or being too nervous to approach someone. Dating in general just comes with a heavy cost and the only way to play to field is to actually get out there and do so. 

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