Internet Romances: What do yall think?

[Crysla]

Fishy

Are you sure it's Fabio, and not Fernando?

You look Mah-velous!!!

Princess

 

[yllus]

I spend a huge majority of my time online in chatrooms/MUDs, and this being so I've watched four couples meet on the Net that I can name off the top of my head. Watched the sparks develop between them and heard about their plans to meet in person. Here's how it went:

Couple #1: Had a wedding shortly after meeting. Had a kid. Things started falling apart, and they separated. The father, a good friend of mine once, hasn't seen his kid in two years, last I heard. I hear from the mother from time to time, but she usually uses that time to spit venom at me. Her personality's changed completely.
Conclusion: Fail. A bad one.

Couple #2: Met in the same online game couple #1 did. Met and got married about two months later. She started "cheating" on him with another guy she met online about four or five months later. He found out (not from me, thank God), they separated and she's single again. He joined the army, which in his words "offer some semblance of sanity".
Conclusion: Fail.

Couple #3: Met in a different live forum. Being younger than couple #1 and #2, and perhaps more wary, they lived together for two years before splitting up. Once in a while they meet up in that forum and it gets really, really ugly very quickly. I don't stop by anymore, though not that much for that reason.
Conclusion: Fail.

Couple #4: Finally, a couple that met online and stayed together through thick and thin! The funniest thing is, they met in a warez IRC chatroom where scrupulous behaviour and courtesy are generally running low. I think they have a daughter now, and everything's a-okay.
Conclusion: Pass with flying colours.


Well, unless I ran into a bad batch of examples, it seems to me that online romance generally doesn't work because people assume the momentum gained online can be carried over into the real world. I suppose a lot of illusioned are shattered when you're actually face-to-face with someone as opposed to that fantastical image in your head.

Not that it isn't worth a try or any fun, of course. Take what you can get and to hell with the risks sometimes.

(Names have been omitted to protect the guilty parties.)

[edit]
Oops, I forgot about couple #5. They just met in RL and all signs indicate they're just having a lot of sex. Sometimes taking risks *really* pays off.
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