By now you have received an email from me to which is attached an interview done by my research assistant, Elisa Wiherin some years ago. The interview is of a woman who was a student at the time and agreed to share her experience falling in love online and then what transpired in the relationship. The names of the two principals are changed but they have given me permission to show the interview to others. I suggest that you print out the interview to work with it. Here
http://www.cyberlove101.com/story21.htm
is a web site devoted to stories (usually interviews) of people who have met and fallen in love online. I suggest you start with story 21 and then look around at other stories. Draw our attention to interesting tidbits that illustrate points you'd like to make.
Here are some questions to start you off. As usual, you can answer these or create your own questions:
1. There is no doubt that Alexis falls in love online. But what does that mean? What does love mean for Alexis and what is it about the online chat room environment that might facilitate this love relationship?
2. This is an example of a relationship in which the people, feeling strongly attracted to each other online, exchange pictures, phone calls and finally meet. This is one end of a spectrum, the other end of which would be people who fall in love online but maintain their love relationship entirely online, only relating through text. What might be the differences in "love" for this hypothetical couple as opposed to the case study example?
3. Based on her responses, what kind of a person do you think Alexis is? How might your interpretation of her as a person explain why she fell in love and how she behaved both in the lead up to the face to face meeting and during that first meeting?
4. You have spent some considerable effort thinking about the nature of personhood online. How are the insights you exchanged with each other (and from the reading) related to thinking aboutg relationships (I appreciate that you have already had some conversation about this; those of you who made comments about individuals and relationships in that forum might remind the rest of us of what you said).
5. What are the similarities and differences between the "cyberlove101" web site stories and this case study?
Good luck; keep the conversation going!
Dr. Bob
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Dr. Bob, check out my posting re: The Simpsons Spoof VR Computer Games. There's a link where you can watch a good chunk of the episode. The folks at the site cut out the second storyline in the episode, so you're only seeing the VR parody. I think it's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteCheers!