Monday, February 7, 2011

Relationships and the Internet Age

It took an article written by Ashton Kutcher to make me realize it. Well, I guess I've always known it, but it's never been brought to my attention like it has now.

Romance is dying. Ok, let's not jump to extremes now. Not dying, but changing.

I've been raised in a society thinking that asking girls out online or over the phone is cowardly. It's been implanted into my mind that any other way besides face-to-face in real time is unacceptable. We live in the age of Facebook and Twitter now. All means of communications basically run through them.

She said yes.

This goes against everything that society has drilled into my brain. The comments following the picture were all in favor of this calling it "adorable" and "beautiful". I'm sitting here thinking "Does this actually work?"

Do you realize how easy a guy's life would be if all hardships in starting a relationship worked all the time through the internet? All those hours, days, maybe even weeks thinking of how to ask a girl out would vanish. All those lines we run through our heads the moments leading up to the actual asking out of vanish. All those heart-beating seconds that seem like an eternity waiting for the girl's response as you awkwardly look at her vanish. Instead, you type a few clever lines and sit in your seat as your stare at your computer screen in anxiety.

Flirting has now been replaced by e-flirting. Include that happy face at the end of a text. Play the right words in the right order. E-flirting makes the world take notice. Anyone can see on their news feed those playful, cute remarks two people exchange. But flirting in real life cannot truly be replaced. The whole world isn't there to take notice. It's more intimate. Those awkward glances at each other. Only the two people involved truly take note of it. Sure there could be a few people around who notices the behavior, but it's not flaunted on one's news feed for all to see.

I refuse to believe in these relationships forming over the internet. There's no real hard work put into it the way doing it face-to-face takes. Of course, I'm no expert in relationships. But I suppose I can put in my two cents.

3 comments:

  1. I don't think the internet will be the death of romance or anything like that anymore than the telephone was. It's just a new form of communication.

    It's interesting, though, you say how easy a guy's life would be if all relationships went through the internet, but there is a flip side to this. In the picture at the top if she says no, his rejection has just been seen by 638893 people.

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  2. hom is right in which he states that it is simply just another means of interacting. even still, the internet does kinda make it seem half-assed.

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  3. i think the internet is just another way of expression its the new dozen roses or box of chocolates i dont it think it kills anything and worrying about a girl in your room doesnt seem right either i would rather tell her over the net than to flake out and never tell her at all

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