Technobiography

On-line Relationships: Deal or No Deal?

August 16th, 2006 | by ka edong |

If you asked me in 2001 or earlier whether on-line relationships could thrive, I would probably reply that on-line relationships are superficial, artificial, fake, un-real, un-true.

But gathering various stories the past years, I have come to the conclusion that on-line relationships can be genuine and could lead to long-term relationships.

It started with a text message
Over two years ago, a friend of mine, let’s call him Leo, started exchanging text messages with a girl. The text messages flew back and forth and escalated from acquaintance, to getting-to-know-you, to flirtation and then to an EB (“eye-ball”, meeting face-to-face). Now, Leo is married to his once-upon-a-time text mate.

From online community to family

I have an online community for smartphone users, airfagev.com . I developed friendships online – at one point, I could claim that my friendship with my online friends were stronger than my friendship with some of my officemates.

This was the first time I experienced first hand that on-line relationships CAN be real. When I met face-to-face for the first time my fellow-moderator, “MR”, in Davao, we had a kind of rapport similar to two high-school buddies meeting for the first time after many years. “MR” and I were “close” like brothers, even if our only prior interaction was online.

We also had community members who developed a long-distance relationship even as they were only a mouse-click away. Miko was from Cebu and Kaye lived in Manila. They met online through Airfagev.com. To make a long-story short, they are now married and have a baby.
“Salamat Airfagev!”, we say, thanks to the online community that has changed the lives of many.
From online friends to life-time partners!

Gamers engage

And then there’s this story of a Filipina 30-ish online gamer, Tita, who engaged in online clashes with gamers from other countries. And in this virtual playground, she met Claude – a 40-ish online gamer from a European country.

The online-games continued and the friendship developed. From enemies, they became allies in this global clash of gamers.

Opportunity called and Tita had the chance to attend a conference in Claude’s country. They met up. A few months later it was Claude’s turn to visit the Philippines.

And then the engagement and marriage. Claude closed shop in his country, moved to the Philippines and settled-down with Tita bringing their online game to the next level of life-time commitment.
True love is true, online or otherwise

So next time you see a lady in an Internet café, putting on make-up for a date with a foreigner boyfriend via chat & webcam, don’t ever doubt that they CAN have a genuine relationship.

When people are true to themselves and to their partners, true love is true, online or otherwise.

ka edong
offline