Life Online...or Online Lies rather

Online life has become for most of us, unfortunately, normal. Damn, did you hear that...normal. Most of us do not think twice about two hours online in the evening. Especially when there is a good red wine in the house. What are we doing for so long, night after night? Its so simple...we are simply talking to imaginary people. Yes. We are interacting with, in many cases absolute fiction. Its really almost like reading, so lets all have some kudos for that, being that the strangers we talk with, bond with, maybe get sticky with are in many cases making up everything we see. Our brains get sold by the visuals, our naturally trusting personalities makes it easier to believe. The beauty, the face, the background, the career, the airplane. Each piece going together to fit perfectly with at least one other person. One person who will absolutly believe the whole show. What entertainment. Not watching sureal TV, but rather entering sureal. Living it, and going to bed each night thinking about it. You might have just done that last night. Are you sure its really real? Are you really, really sure? Okay.

Our worlds are nothing more than perceptions, each of us percieving different things, noticing different things, even being bothered by things many would not notice...like that misspelled word. That just drove someone nuts. Each of these perceptions changes our feelings and moments. Changing thoughts and attention. And most of all changing our beliefs. And what is the world if not made up of perceptions and beliefs. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. Israel, or Palistine. Who tells the truth? They both do, it just depends what they believe, what they have perceived and who you ask.

So our online worlds work the same way. This makes online dating even more difficult. Pictures are only worth something when notarized I think. Maybe drivers licenses should be madated for online dating. But worse than just hearing what you want to hear, and seeing what you hope is there. More than just having a bad date, or a wasted night. Each of those leads to nothing less than a great story that can be enjoyed over and over. Which really is a gift. But worse than that are the myspace liars. Myspace is so easy a venue for making up entire people. This is where love is formed out of nothing, made of nothing, destined for less than nothing. This is where boys become lesbians looking to swap pics with other lesbians, but actually are swapping pics with who...?C'mon you know the answer. Yes with other boys. This is where hackers stalk, and steal faces to become their own. Where relationships can be destroyed with deceptions because it is so easy to hear whatever voice we expect when reading words. Its our perceptions of what is really happening that makes it true for us. If you read the greatest insult ever written by your best friend. A deep well thought out and hateful insult. How would you feel. What if it was a stranger using the face of your friend and combining it with their own words. Did it still hurt, did it have consequenses. Were the effects real?
What if you fall in love. How do you know if it is real or not. So much can be made up, hopes can get so high, the dangers can begin to get so great. How will we all be careful and yet be open to wonderous possibilities. What if you fell in love online, the love was real, but someone who was made up told you the person you were in love with was fake. Told you that there was lots to show the person was entirely fiction. How would you feel. Who would you believe when they are both online? What if you acted on that information and ended the relationship but it turned out to be real after all. What an enormous loss that would have been. What if you did not call it off and the other person was pretend? This is called, in the great words of Garfield "Riding the ragged edge of disaster".
Which is worse, falling in love and finding out it is false, or falling in love and finding out its true but losing it because of a falsehood. Dangerous place to play. Our perceptions are our realities. Heartbreak is real and it hurts like hell. Online is often fake, but still can lead to heartbreak. You need to wear your condoms, all of you.