A lot of people still hold traditional views of what constitute as romance and love, and how to go about pursuing them. Meeting their prospective partners through mutual friends or family or in the office or the university is still the preferable mode of romance-seeking for most. And for the few adventurous souls dating and social networking websites can prove to be the fertile ground for romance.
With the explosive growth of social networking websites people are now finding love in previously uncharted territory. Despite the popularity of online communication and the ridiculous amount of time people spend in virtual communities, online romance still holds a certain stigma within the society. People are still reluctant to tell others that they met their partners in some dating or social networking websites. It's the common mis-perception that only losers trawl the cyber world looking for love. Well, that might be the case a few years ago but it certainly is not nowadays - at least in some parts of the world.
Facebook, for one, has inadvertently become a conducive and safe arena for starting or renewing romance. A couple of examples perfectly illustrated this phenomenon and inspired me to blog about it:
First incident happened last Friday when I was hanging out at Coffee Bean in Bangsar Village. There was a really cute Chinese girl sitting by herself one table over from me. Then a guy came to sit at a table next to her and asked to borrow her lighter. I think he borrowed her lighter five times in a span of 30 minutes! Finally, as he was about to leave, he gave her a napkin written with his name, email and phone number. He also told the girl to check out his Facebook profile if she wants to know more about him. She immediately added him as a friend on Facebook and was approved by the guy in a matter of minutes! Okay, I was sitting a mere three feet away from her, which meant that I could listen in to the conversation and even took a peek at her laptop screen.
Second incident involved a friend of mine who found her long-lost high school crush through the wonders of Facebook and now they plan to get married March next year. Both of them have been traveling and living in various countries in the past decade and had lost contact with each other for so many years. The thing was he didn't even know that she used to have a mad crush on him back in high school, and obviously she still has the same feelings for him until today. Now they're finally living in the same country but in different cities, which means that some compromises will have to be made when they get married next year. I'm no sentimental sap but I think their story is poignant and by no means an isolated case.
I believe that finding new love or reconnecting with old one online is fast becoming a norm in a population consumed with living the virtual life. A lot of people spend equal, if not more, hours engaging in online communities than the real one. As in the real world social interaction, online social interaction also involves feelings and emotions. Just because we are not physically visible it doesn't mean that the emotions and feelings are any less real. The key issue with online social interaction is trust, and as more and more people becoming fully invested in online communities I believe people will be more transparent, honest, and truthful since they don't want to jeopardize their social standing within this virtual community.
I think Facebook is a great place to meet new people or even to find romance because it allows the user to be more transparent and honest by posting pictures of themselves and letting others comment on their page, among other features. It's a cliche but honesty and transparency are the important aspects in making any relationship to work and succeed. Granted that Facebook users can still tailor-made their profile so as to mold and create a certain public persona for themselves, but people are already doing that in real life anyway. In all, if any you have the inclination to find your soul-mate in the vast cyber world then go do it and pay no mind to what negative things your friends and family might say. It beats sitting at the bar trying various lame pick-up lines on the disinterested ladies.
Disclosure: I, myself, have had a romantic dalliance with a total stranger through Facebook, and I don't see anything wrong with it. My Facebook profile is transparent and honest, and I never pretend to be somebody else online.
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