PETA

I'm sure that a lot of you have heard about PETA's issue with Obama killing a fly during an interview. If not, here is a video of it happening and here is the article discussing PETA's issue. Well, since I was interested, I went to www.peta.org

and was surprised at how interactive the site was. They have a very frequently updated blog as well as a forum where members can discuss food, fashion, as well as ways to get involved and active in supporting the ethnic treatment of animals. The getting active portion of the forum really reminded me of Zeke and all of his protesting. The internet is so advanced now that, not only are people going out and protesting or gaining support, but people are protesting directly through the internet. Sending emails and creating online petitions are all ways that these people are standing up for what they believe in. I think that it is great that now the internet is not only a place where they can meet and discuss their beliefs but also a place where they can protest and make a difference.  

Politics...I'm not really qualified

I, like so many others, never really knew too much about politics and I'm not sure I really ever cared to. I knew what I believed and what I thought was right and wrong and that was all that I needed. I finally started to look into learning about politics because my best friend is very much into politics and a huge Obama supporter and I would lose every politic related argument we had basically because I didn't know what I was talking about. I found the internet very helpful in helping me become a little factual about politics and what is going on in the world without letting too many people know that I really had no idea. Of course I really only know little bits of information because politics still really isn't my thing, however not looking completely unknowledgeable  is. 

However, when I first started reading this article, I have to say I felt a little intimidated. But I was impressed with Zeke Spier and the way he used to internet to find his information. He said that "about 95% of the research I did was on the internet " and it is amazing that the internet had so much information back then, that it was basically the only place he needed to go. I can't only imagine how much information is there now. He was so passionate about what he believed in. He definitely inspired me to use the internet to care more and become more knowledgeable about politics and the world because in actuality, I really should be. I don't have to agree with everything or support it, but I should know. Today, the internet is right at our finger tips, there is no reason we should not use it for all it is. 

Zeke Spier In Real Life

I am not sure if we were supposed to, but today I watched the IRL dvd that we bought. I couldn't really get on board with the find love online although I am trying to, but as I watched this I thought, well this is something I can relate to. I am willing to admit that I have belonged to a message board, and no I will not admit to which specific one. However, I joined for the same reason most of the people in the video did, I didn't know anyone who liked this as much as I did. I would talk to my friends about it and they would be like, why do you like it so much? So just surfing the net I stumbled across the message board. At first I thought, I am not going to join because it's silly and what not. But as I read the posts I found I had things to say and that I felt the same way that a lot of the people there did, so I said alright I'll give it a shot. At first it became all about talking about this thing, what we liked about it, what we didn't, and I thought wow there are a lot of people who feel the same way I do and they are from all over the world. Then something happened, as what happened to the people in the video. I started to make friends and not just friends to talk about what the message board was about, but friends I could talk to about normal everyday things. The message board became a community and not just a web site. As time went on, I started going to events for this thing and I started to meet some of them. Some of them where exactly how I thought they'd be and some were so much different then who they were online. A lot of them I ended up not liking, but over time there are a few that became good friends of mine. Although I don't go to the boards that much anymore, we still get together like once a month and I have even traveled a lot of the country with them. They have become more than just people from a board, they have become my friends. Friends I don't think I would have ever met otherwise.

I also think that this relates a lot to the reading about Zeke Spier. The protest groups that he and so many other people were a part of online were much like the boards that the people from the dvd and I were a part of. In the article, he states that "the internet was an excellent way to connect people with similar beliefs who were separated by time and space." He made this evident in the way he used it to connect with the other students at Brown as well as the way he used it to find out how the protests were going and where people were. On his way to Philadelphia for the protest he says that " he's only contact with the Philadelphia protest organizers was by Internet and if it wasn't for the internet he doesn't know how he would have found anyone." In this sort of way, the internet became like a community for him. A place where he could connect and express his beliefs to people who felt the same way he did.

Now I know some people are thinking, okay so you don't believe in finding love online and yet you did this and found friends through the internet?? Isn't that like almost the same thing? And I have to say for me it isn't, maybe it is the way I view love or how I care for my heart, which I wish was something I could explain. But I'm very old fashioned when it comes to love. I love the first date, nervous smiles and the awkward silences. I like to learn about someone by the way they react to things as well as what they have to say. I love the little smiles or glances at each other that make your stomach flutter. All of those things that I feel can't be really experienced over the internet. However, maybe I need to fall into that the way I fell into the message board. However, when someone messages me on my myspace with the name "Rick Hotness" and says "You are so deliciously attractive," I can't help but feel weirded out...just a bit. The internet makes it easy for guys like Mr. Hotness to use lines like that. I fully believe that in real life a guy would not walk up to a girl he never met and use that line, not being serious anyway, but over the internet it's okay. Where is the magic in that? (And yes that happened to me today haha).

While reading the stories on cyberlove101, I first was honestly surprised that there were so many stories where the couple found love online and it actually worked. I noticed, though, that a lot of the reasons why people went to the online chat was exactly as I expected. A lot of people were lonely, or going through something in their lives and were looking for something to fill the empty void that they had. Of course there were some stories that didn't mention being lonely, however those stories don't really go into detail about the person's reasoning for starting to chat online. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that these relationships are being successful. If two people are at the same point and going through the same things in their lives they will value each others company and a relationship could develop. I guess it really doesn't matter where you meet someone. I don't see this ever being something for me, but everyone is different and I am starting to see how this could work for some people. However, I don't really feel like it makes a good, healthy relationship, but that's just my opinion.

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?

A relationship based entirely online is much different than the relationship described in the case study. When a love relationship is maintained entirely online, through text, that is really as far as it can go. The couple can not get married, have children, or start a family. It my opinion, a relationship like that is only half of a relationship. While I am not too sure yet about finding love online, I do think that if love is found online, meeting is very important if the relationship is to grow. If your goal is to find a companion, someone you can talk to, then a strictly text based online relationship can be just fine for you. But if you want children and a family, although I am sure that it isn't impossible to do strictly online with technology and all, I am not sure it would be as fulfilling as actually being together and sharing these times in person. I honestly have never heard of a couple who have had a love relationship strictly online and have never met in person. I would be interested to see if it actually is possible to get married and have children in this type of relationship and if people have actually done it.

Love online?

As I have stated before, I do believe that Alexis found love and fell in love with someone she met online. I think that the online chat room environment may have helped her do that. She may have found the chat room to be safe for her to open up and share her feelings with Craig when she first met him since they couldn't see each other and get physical reactions from each other. This could have helped their connection start and grow. However, I don't think that she really fell in love with Craig until they met and they really got to see and spend time with each other. I think that they are both really lucky that they found each other this way and that they both ended up being who they said they were and not crazy people. I also think that they are also lucky that they liked each other as much in person as they did online. Just because you have a verbal connection with someone doesn't always mean that you will have that physical connection as well. You can't feel a person's energy, their intensity, their passion through a keyboard.

I am starting to see that finding a person you want to start a relationship with online is possible. I just don't really believe that it would ever work for me because for me, in a relationship feelings come more from what isn't said. Conversation is important, but what is felt when there isn't anything to say really speaks for itself. Although, I really should never say never because anything can happen haha. I really don't think, while reading this interview, that it ever felt real to me. It really came off as a story, and I'm not sure an even good one. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge sap, a romantic person, and the first to cry at a happy love story. But this for me wasn't cute. I didn't find myself saying "aww" at any point of it. It really just felt strange, weird, and I hate to say it, desperate. I really want to jump on board with the online relationship thing, but I can't seem to yet.

What kind of person is Alexis? What kind of person is Craig? Similar, it seems.

After reading this interview about Alexis and the love she found online, I do believe that she fell in love. However, I believe that she only found it because she was searching for it. She was searching for some kind of connection with someone. She says that she "was feeling somewhat isolated and lonely the months she found herself chatting online with people" and that she didn't get along right away with the other students at Lehigh, which is why she started to chat with people online. She wanted to find someone to connect with. Craig was also having a similar situation with his at the time girlfriend, although we don't know his entire story, where he was feeling frustrated and a little lost since it seems he was being disrespected by his current girlfriend. (On a side note; nowhere in the interview does she ever say that Craig broke up with his girlfriend. Maybe that it just implied, but it makes me feel a little uneasy about him.) I feel like he had nowhere to turn and no one to talk to and this is why he opened up so easily about his relationship to Alexis. Since they were both in the same place, they could easily feed off each other and fill that empty void that each of them was carrying around. I am not really sure I believe in finding love online, but I do believe that if Craig and Alexis were both not going through the same type of feelings in their lives, this would not have worked. 

I know I sound jaded about this finding love online, but I have known a few people who have tried the online dating sites (eharmony, match.com, etc), which are completely geared towards finding love online, just because they wanted to try them out and see if possibly some great guy was hanging out there. They have not found anything close to what they wanted except lost, desperate people who are searching for a connection. They have gone back to finding love the "old fashioned" way. In my experience, love is best discovered when you live your life and let love find you rather than going out and searching for it. Then the love only adds to everything you already have, instead of filling a part of you that you feel like you're missing.