Is Cyber Love a Degraded Form of Real Life Love Essay

Is Cyber Love a Degraded Form of Real Life Love - Essay Example After chatting for several days, they realize that both of them cannot sleep tight without talking to their cyber friend or without saying goodnight to each other. The feeling of love develops when people are attracted towards each other or when the interest and hobbies match. When love happens online, it can then be tagged as cyber love. Cyber love results when couples chat with each other for months (Theng, 2009). There are various perceptions that people hold about cyber love. Most of them think that cyber love is unreal as people are not exactly aware of the identity of the person they are chatting with. Especially parents get scared for their children involved in online relationship. They are aware of the fact that cyber is a virtual world; therefore, one cannot trust people for their identity. Now the question arises if cyber love is a â€Å"degraded form† of real love. Before evaluating the phrase â€Å"cyber love†, there is a need to look at it through several p erspectives. Lately, there is an increasing trend in singles who are involved in cyber dating. Talk shows are a mean of creating hype for the cyber chatting. The movie You’ve Got Mail also contributed toward increasing the trend of cyber dating. Cyber love is, however, very different from real relationship. The cyber environment is quite restricted in comparison to the natural one. For a new cyber user, online chatting environment may be daunting (Grant, 2013). For new internet users, communicating through a cyber chat room is an obstacle at first. There are certain protocols which are followed online, for example, to avoid offending people and to in case of chatting with someone who recurs to the help of sarcasm. There is no non-verbal communication involved in chatting; typed words are the only mean through which a person may communicate and express his or her feeling for others. A newbie, before starting their chatting experience, observes other users interacting with each other. In this way, the newbie observes the internet chatting culture before they feel comfortable while interacting with others. To some degree, every internet user is mesmerised by the fantasy that it provides. The internet users must realise the fact that there is a certain level of sensitivity which is required to interact with others. There is a huge difference between interacting with people online and interacting with them in person. When two people continuously interact with one another through online chat room, they often fantasise that they have fallen in love. The chat room partners often plan to meet each on a specific day at a specific place. This is where reality meets fantasy. Several experiences have been shared by people where they have reported that their chat room partner was totally different from the one whose picture was displayed on the chat profile of their partner. After going through a period of disillusionment, people have understood how to use the intern et wisely and safely. Sherry Turkle, a sociology professor, studied the relationship that people share with computers, in his book Life on the Screen. He also defined the aspects of how people today relate themselves to the internet culture. According to professor Turkle, an individual builds one individual image of him/herself by cycling through several images.