Computers are marvelous machines. They can be anything you want them to be. A friend, an enemy, a travel agent, a doctor, a lawyer, a library, a comfort or a bane of existance, depending on how they are used. When I bought my computer 30 months ago I had no idea how much my life would be changed. Those changes are both positive and negative. On the plus side I have built this website and if the feedback I've received is any indication it has been inspirational to many people. I've conversed with many people throughout the world and found old friends and relatives I thought were lost to me forever. The world is now only a click away. On the minus side, I'm getting out of shape. I no longer go for walks as often as I used to, nor do I go to the library and spend hours browsing, really browsing . I don't see my friends as often as I used to and I don't talk on the telephone to my family in Scotland as often.
My Journey through Cyberspace has taken me many places. I've witenessed many things and been introduced to chat rooms. In chat rooms I've watched strangers form bonds of genuine friendship with people they have never met nor are ever likely to meet. I've seen outpourings of support for fellow chatters traumatized by some tradgedy in their personal lives. I've also witnessed the seamier side of the human condition. I've watched desparately lonely and unhappy souls involved in sordid internet affairs. I've witnessed acts of hate, jealousy, visciousness and cruelty under the cloak of annonimity in chat rooms. Indeed, I have been personally subjected to such visciousness by a very unhappy and delusional person. All wonderful material for the novel I'm working on, but heartbreaking to think that there are real people on the giving and receiving end of such manic behaviour.
As in real life sitiuations there are bullys, predators, phoneys, liars and cheats. There are also angels, innocents and genuinly caring folk. Unless you are astute enough to differentiate and navigate the minefield that chat rooms are you can be in grave danger. I have watched over the past eighteen months and saw people discover chat with hope and excitement, only to leave hurt and disallusioned.
Chat profiles, meant to give some personal background and offer a starting point for conversation can be very misleading and are only as honest as the person who wrote them. Confusion can reign for a new chatter as they try to sort out the fantasy relationships that are abundant. Cyber lovers, cyber sisters, cyber brothers, cyber daughters, cyber sons and the strangest of all "cyber husbands". It makes one wonder. I have no doubt that in a few years time there will be "cyber lawyers" doing "cyber divorces". What makes a seemingly normal individual abandon discretion and self respect in a chatroom and become a public spectacle? Its interesting to note that one of the worst serial killers in North Amrerica was said to be the most charming person accross the lunch table. I refer of course to Ted Bundy.
The postiive side of chatrooms is that they allow otherwise lonely individuals to interact with their peers. People who through a physical or perhaps emotional disability are unable to meet and make friends through the normal channels can experience the joy of being part of a happy group. In this respect its theraputic and definitely recommended. Spending a few hours in chat can be very rewarding, but allowing it to consume your life is unhealthy at best and and dangerous at least. Chat addiction is as real as any other addiction and has been known to put a strain on real life relationships and in some cases destroy them. I personally know a woman who abandoned her husband and family to go to the other side to the world to be with a man she had only "chatted" to. She is now back home, estranged from her family, sadder but no wiser as she is still"chatting."
In conclusion I would like to say that these are only MY observations and opinions and you are free to disagree. I believe that in chatrooms as in real life common sense is a must.
