We live in a crazy world. There are a lot of crazy people. And then are not so crazy people that simply have different views, morals, priorities, interests or lifestyles than you do. In all of this mess, men and women search for love. We look for treasure amid trash. The Holy Grail: one person that we can love who will love us, that we can respect, and that will treat us with respect. We look for a loving caring partner to have a fulfilling and long-lasting relationship.
But where do we find people? We find them at our jobs, we find them in our churches, we find them in bars, we may even find them at a gas station or grocery store. Some have used personals adds or dating services. And they say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince or princess.
And then, you meet people, and they put their best foot forward... try to be likable... This gives you a false picture of who they are. Eventually, they get tired of standing on their “best foot” and you start to see how they really are, day in, day out. Often it turns out to be quite different than the impression they gave you. I wouldn’t necessarily call it intentional dishonesty, but what they presented was a mask and not reality. Maybe it was fear of rejection, or lack of self-confidence. Either way, same result.
Enter the age of communication: the internet.
Now we have online dating sites, online communities, instant messaging, and voice and video chat. We have the entire world open before us with possibilities of finding that special person. We meet people online and talk and we get the feeling that we “know” them.
As hard as it is to get to know someone in person, it is even harder to get to know them online. Since it isn’t face to face, it is easier for misunderstandings to occur. It is also easier to present a false personality and easier for people to be someone they are not. For some it is a chance to be a fantasy. For others it is a way to reach out from behind their wall of fear. And then there are those that are simply malicious. Even 400 pound Bubba in Louisiana can post pictures of some bikini model and call himself “sweet sexy MILF 4 U”. There are scams galore in which some beautiful woman from far away claims to have quickly fallen in love with a guy, and wants to marry a guy if he will just send her the money for the plane ticket.
Just as in real life, there are all kinds of people on the internet. So my question is … With all the lies and scams and dishonesty, with how easy it is to lie online, is it really possible to find the needle in the enormous haystack of the internet?
I think it is. But it is never easy. What do you think?
