When You Found Love in Cyberspace
Love. It is a word that is believed by almost every human in this world. Moreover, it is believed that love is the way to happiness. Many people find love to find the happiness they deserve in this world. There are many definitions of this word and each definition varies depending on how it is experienced or grasped. I, as a human being, also provide a definition of this word. My experience will elaborate more on how I found this definition of love through the use of the internet; a realm for human beings wherein anonymity is possible, a universe where not all five senses can be able to perceive.
According to scholars, reality is what the five common senses can perceive. Something is real when you can see it, feel it, touch it, smell it, or even taste it. Those that go beyond these senses are not real—or maybe more than real. However, there are things that do not meet these criteria. Just like God, who is very impossible to be seen, felt, touched, smelled, and tasted. Many believe in Him even though nobody has ever experienced God. Just like God, love, in general is indeed transcendent to reality. Love is an abstract feeling but it is real. In relation to love, cyberspace is also real but goes beyond what is known to be real. Nobody can touch it, see it literally, touch it, smell it, or taste it. It is a world where humans interact without requiring their physical presence to interact with one another. In fact, it is an amazing reality because there are things that cannot be expressed in the reality that can be expressed in cyberspace. There are people out there who cannot show off their real talents in person but they are able to show it in cyberspace. In cyberspace, relationship and trust can still be present even in the reality. In other terms, what exists in cyberspace can also exist in the reality. It is another way to connect reality and people and relationships.
When I was new to cyberspace, I never thought I could meet other people like me. I thought I was alone and that I am different from everyone else. I found same souls in cyberspace, and it was indeed a very amazing experience. Without cyberspace, it would be difficult for me or even impossible for me to find the people I want to talk to. Cyberspace is the easiest access to talk or mingle with the people who can listen to you and share the same interests to you. My first ever encounter with the cyberspace was with the site called Friendster. At first, I was not that active in cyberspace. I did not take it seriously since cyberspace was not that wide back then. Until Facebook came together with Twitter and many other social networking sites. I met several friends online and I thought at first that they were all fake since we just met through the net. As years pass by, I realize how real these online friends are. They are still there for me whenever I need them. Our connections were not cut or hindered by any other means. Sometimes I think that cyberspace is better than the reality because the bonds are stronger in cyberspace than in reality. Moreover, the reality provides limited people and relationships. Sometimes you just have to deal with the same people and choose from what is available in your environment. For me, cyberspace is wider and more exciting than reality. They are two separated worlds but somehow, they are interlinked with each other, forming a connection in order to make something more real.
When I found love in cyberspace, I never thought it would be real. I was not taking it seriously at first; laughing at it for as long as I could since my mindset back then was love could not exist in this kind of realm—or if ever it could, it could not go beyond cyberspace; it will just stay there until it dies slowly when the connection fades.
I was wrong. Sayings are right. Love is everywhere, conquering everyone. Cyberspace is a possible place for love to dwell on. You could still see right through a person’s mind even in cyberspace. There was an anime I have seen which said that the feeling in virtual world is real too and that it is not artificial but rather natural. I felt it too. I felt what the character said.
Reality and Cyberspace
In the figure above, it shows that the realm of reality and cyberspace are parallel universes of each other. It reflects what happens on the other. Therefore, those that exist in reality can also exist in cyberspace. Just like love, that is a kind of feeling that connects people and the world. It is possible to feel love and affection in cyberspace even the physical presence of one another is absent. There is an element that will suffice this absence which is the virtual presence of one another.
For me, cyberspace is the parallel universe of reality because it reflects what is happening in reality. Moreover, it can also show some opposition that exists in reality; for example, a timid girl in person yet famous in cyberspace for uploading her videos. This simply states that cyberspace is not an ideal place where people can just fool around with strangers and cannot make real emotions and true emotions. At first, people are scared to show their real identity in cyberspace because they are aware of the fact that cyberspace is a vast arena for cyberbullies and victims. In addition, they want to conceal their identities first to protect themselves from the incognitos they interact with online; but if they started to get to know one another, they would gradually show who they really are—with the feelings they have and ideas they wanted to share. I too believe that attachment is very possible in cyberspace. In what happened to me, I felt intense sadness when the one I was talking to said goodbye. It felt like my world was going to fall down on me. I never felt that sadness before. I even came to the point of wanting more of the cyber presence of that person. I never thought I would be that attached to that stranger I just met online. When I realized it at first, I was laughing at myself because I thought I was too shallow to get emotionally attached to that particular person yet I never met him in person. Maybe it was because we humans look down to the technology we have. We feel that we are superior to the things that are operated by microchips and programs. Now that I experienced that, my mind was completely open to any possibilities in cyberspace. It is human interaction after all, just in a different way. Unexpectedly, the love I felt in cyberspace existed even in the reality. By seeing him in person, being able to directly interact with the physical presence of the person I am attached to, nothing changed. My feelings for him remained the same. Our souls only met in cyberspace but that did not limit us to meet personally.
Cyberspace is indeed a powerful type of universe. You can meet almost all types of person you can imagine. It is a place where the world has become smaller in order to make different people meet. People must not underestimate the power of cyberspace because it is an environment created by real people to interact with real people.
Let us always keep in mind that it’s not only our fingers typing and clicking work in cyberspace but also our heart and mind. Everything can be real in cyberspace once everyone is willing to be real. Like the world, cyberspace too has some danger. We must also take some advices in cyberspace the way we apply quotes in our real lives; two different worlds but only one goal in hand—happiness in existence.
What composes my mind 