Relationship upgrade
Monday, August 10, 2009 by RH
This whole idea of ‘intimacy at a distance’ where as mentioned in the lecture how relationships through the internet are void of any long term attachment. Boredom aside people can also drop and pick-up others as a means of upgrading their relationships. This seems too immoral as it allows people to keep others at arm’s length and without real physical conversation or contact, there would be a larger chance of little emotional attachment to those who you talk to online which will encourage ‘cheating’. For that matter I couldn’t imagine those who have an online relationship to take it seriously enough that they wouldn’t flirt or date someone in reality. Therefore has cyberspace dating made it a lot easier for a generation of promiscuous behavior, where individuals can interact with more than one other person on a lustful level and find that to be normal?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the current generation who have cyber-space relationships all around them take the idea of a traditional (real-life) relationship less seriously. The idea of general boredom in relationships is a growing possibility at earlier stages of the relationship. I think this is a dangerous notion for the ‘generation Y’, a generation of emails done instantly, internet downloads done instantly, and who want everything done now. Also one could argue a selfish generation with I-pods, my-space, creating this self involved living that allows you to be trapped in your little bubble and block out the rest of the world. This of course is contributing to this notion of ‘instant gratification’ where we expect everything to be done for us and right now. Cyberspace relationships would be a dangerous tool to give to such a generation because it empowers the individual to have a life of everything and done instantly, perhaps if an individual is unhappy with their traditional (real-life) relationship they could use internet dating as a tool to fill a void, while without solving any problems in their real relationship and avoiding real-life inconvenience.
Cyberspace space dating has helped in turning dating into a commodity, the way we treat technology there is this built in obsolete factor where a piece of technology only stays new for a short time until we thirst for an upgrade. Because cyberspace dating is done via technology and the fact it is so easy to upgrade relationships there is a looming notion that upgrading relationships will become more common not just in cyberspace but also in traditional relationship within real-life. There is a social construction that is learnt from being in cyberspace and interacting via technology, it is already very common to speak in ‘txt’ language within normal conversation so could this computerised conditioning translate behaviour such as promiscuous dating from cyberspace into the real world.
This is a fascinating thought to ponder not just because cyber-space dating encourages an individual’s behaviour to get bored and upgrade relationships quicker but also because these relationships are done via technology. The idea of going through four or five mobile-phones a year is quite a normal train of thought and because cyberspace dating is done via technology is it a natural function to see the relationship in a totally different way, in a way that encourages upgrade?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the current generation who have cyber-space relationships all around them take the idea of a traditional (real-life) relationship less seriously. The idea of general boredom in relationships is a growing possibility at earlier stages of the relationship. I think this is a dangerous notion for the ‘generation Y’, a generation of emails done instantly, internet downloads done instantly, and who want everything done now. Also one could argue a selfish generation with I-pods, my-space, creating this self involved living that allows you to be trapped in your little bubble and block out the rest of the world. This of course is contributing to this notion of ‘instant gratification’ where we expect everything to be done for us and right now. Cyberspace relationships would be a dangerous tool to give to such a generation because it empowers the individual to have a life of everything and done instantly, perhaps if an individual is unhappy with their traditional (real-life) relationship they could use internet dating as a tool to fill a void, while without solving any problems in their real relationship and avoiding real-life inconvenience.
Cyberspace space dating has helped in turning dating into a commodity, the way we treat technology there is this built in obsolete factor where a piece of technology only stays new for a short time until we thirst for an upgrade. Because cyberspace dating is done via technology and the fact it is so easy to upgrade relationships there is a looming notion that upgrading relationships will become more common not just in cyberspace but also in traditional relationship within real-life. There is a social construction that is learnt from being in cyberspace and interacting via technology, it is already very common to speak in ‘txt’ language within normal conversation so could this computerised conditioning translate behaviour such as promiscuous dating from cyberspace into the real world.
This is a fascinating thought to ponder not just because cyber-space dating encourages an individual’s behaviour to get bored and upgrade relationships quicker but also because these relationships are done via technology. The idea of going through four or five mobile-phones a year is quite a normal train of thought and because cyberspace dating is done via technology is it a natural function to see the relationship in a totally different way, in a way that encourages upgrade?