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There is no denying that love has changed. The question, it would seem, is how. Is it for better or worse, for sickness or health, 'till disconnection do us part?
Blame the Internet. People across the globe are undergoing a revolution in relationships not seen since the '60s. Couples are meeting, courting and falling in love without ever staring into each other's eyes (web-cams notwithstanding). A recent case from Bosnia speaks to both the irony and tragedy of Cupid's contemporary quiver:
Although they were married, Sana and Adnan, Klaric had fallen out of love and were secretly seeking solace in Internet chatrooms. Like many people they each met someone who they felt finally understood them. Sana and Adnan each poured their hearts out about their martial woes, perhaps hoping that they had at last discovered a "real soul mate."
But as fate would have it, the couple were actually talking online to each other -- which they discovered when they eventually met. Rather than rejuvenating their love, the discovery has prompted their divorce.
Online partners, it would seem, are as easy to find as free love at Woodstock and (IMHO as a child of the '80s) probably more fleeting. The major difference is that you rarely look at and even more rarely touch the person on the other end. It is a fantasy, a second life, which much like the "virtual world" by the same name, has begun affecting the original product. Murder, divorce and heartbreak have all resulted from what Moses could never have imagined when he accepted the tablet on which was inscribed the Seventh Commandment. With a few clicks of a mouse, and a few strokes on the keyboard, we can "cyber-mate" at distances and speeds which would make Don Juan's head spin. And without so much as a wink or a kiss we can break hearts.
As I said, there's no denying love has changed, and that technology has been the catalyst. Is the change for better or worse? Let me know what you think.
By Emil Steiner
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