| Teenager Dumped By Chat-Room
Girlfriend
CYBERSPACE -- Joey
Passmore is alone. The 14-year-old Internet enthusiast
recently lost his cyber-girlfriend and computer
soulmate, LUV_U2, and he's not sure how to deal with the
confusing new emotions that have begun to stir inside him.
"I don't understand," moped Joey. "I
gave her my love, my devotion, and the IP's of some private
FTP sites. "
Joey, 14, never met LUV_U2 in Real Life™.
They met online almost two months ago, but were committed
to each other after
only a few short chat sessions over a two-week period.
"Something clicked right from the start," said Joey. "I
admit, I found her choice of avatar sexually attractive,
but there's more to her than just that. I would show
up in the #lookN4love
chatroom on Undernet, and we would share the time together,
while we did homework, watched 'Mad About You' repeats,
and played
PopCap games over the Net."
"I thought we had something special," continued Joey. "I
would send her e-cards, and links to special poems that
were written for people like us. I even photoshopped
our avatars together
on a Martian landscape--way romantic. But then that one
evening, she came into the IRC channel and was really
quiet. I knew something
was wrong."
Joey has been unable to talk about his break-up with family
members and even considered selling his computer, and joining
the school volleyball team, just to get away from the pain. At
fourteen, break-ups are awkward to deal with. This was Joey's
first romance and he believes his few friends at school would
only laugh at him if he mentioned it to any of them.
"Those guys at school would only want to know how far I
got, like did she send pictures of her tits, or something like
that," said an angry Joey. "They wouldn't understand
it was so much more than that."
His only source of closure has been a couple of Internet love
forums that he has bookmarked on his web browser.
"I posted a message on a message board for heartbroken
individuals who were recently dumped," said Joey, sobbing
quietly, "but the only response was from some joker who
asked how I knew it wasn't a man I was dating. How cruel
can you get?"
"We were at that stage in our relationship where we were
almost ready to exchange ICQ numbers, a huge leap in commitment," said
Joey, wiping his nose. "Someday I had hoped we could swap
actual snail-mail addresses, maybe even a photo, and then,
who knows after that? I guess she got scared. I don't understand."
Joey isn't sure he can trust cyberwomen anymore, and is afraid
to reveal his true self online to another. He may find escape
by interacting only with girls he knows from school, church,
and his neighbourhood. But that would mean meeting them and Joey
isn't ready for social encounters yet.
"I may never be able to cyberdate again," cried Joey. "I've
been hurt once, and now I may never be able to use that
same alias. "
Joey almost deleted the chat logs he had
with LUV_U2 in a fit of anger. "I was hurt, and I wanted to hurt. But now, those
lines of text are the only thing I have left to cherish," said
Joey. "The smilicons we shared were special, but now I may
never smilicon again."
News Source: The Toque
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