Love in the Age of Machines
What is the nature of love in the machine age? With the web touching everything no one escapes it’s tentacles. Love and our primal need for it must be changing in more ways than we care to entertain. We would be stunned to know how much the machine has changed our idea and expectations of love. And can we even call it by that name anymore.
We spend our lives on the net consumed with a million distractions. The one constant is humans reaching out to each other. We have an insatiable need to connect with one another. No matter what we do online whether gaming or commerce it is still the same old forging of relationships with our fellow humans. In the midst of all that interactions the dynamics of relationships are bound to change. The persistent connections serves as a catalyst that triggers many different responses. Some might not even be aware of the change that is happening but change nonetheless independent of conscious effort.
Love is a big part of that change. Social networks defines love for millions of people all over the world. People broadcast their relationship status easily as it changes over time. Whereas before if you and your lover were no longer loving only a few people knew, now the world knows and it reacts. Lots of people find their love online. They fall in love online even before meeting in the real. Some swear by that digital love. Sometimes people choose to keep the love exclusively digital. The fantasy it seems is much sweeter than reality. Virtual reality will be quite the enabler of that kind of escapism.
Love was bound to be affected by the machine age. It would have been impossible to remain static in the face of so much change. How we deal with that new love is the real question.
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I met my wife online in the late 90's. It took 14 years for us to get together. From the start we had a connection.
I used to spend hours chatting with her online. Not only with her. I had my gaming clan, and also many forums in which I participated.
One day I was sitting at my computer, typing out a reply to someone when I noticed a bird tapping it's beak against the window behind me. That same bird turned up, day after day. It would sit for hours tapping against the window, and hopping along the ledge looking at itself..
One day, as I contemplated the bird's behavioiur. I realized the parallel between communicating with people online and this bird. When we talk to people online, we do so through text. The text is not able to convey much about who that person is, so our mind fills in the blanks.
Just as the bird becomes fascinated by its own reflection in the window. Just as it becomes enamored of this handsome companion that follows its every move. So we can become fascinated by who we imagine other people are online. We create them as reflections of ourselves, essentially falling in love with ourselves. I think this is one of the subtle changes that have been brought about through plugging into the network.
As time has gone by, people have become more demanding of their online associates. Shows like 'Catfish' illustrate well how much we can become the victim of our own desire.
Fascinating. We definitely superimpose our selves on others.
Fully agree with you , have to say for me personally online communication feels a bit off and I have seen it in many people, that superficial "how are you?" just to push the narrative forward and show you something they like .
Respect and trust grow in person , for me at least, most people have online personalities much different from their own.
I offer this fractal fascinator to you, as a device to attract the eye of the reader. Like the ruby buried in the dark cave, it will draw them to your written treasure.
Think of it as a fractal love heart......
The eye is drawn to novelty. Draw them into novel ideas, with novel images. Free of encumbrance.
Note: If you put it on the end of the article it won't be too distracting.
Nice!
just 1 edit away :) @billykeed
Love as a noun, or love as a verb? Perhaps machines, at least these digital-electronic contraptions, push the nouniness to the foreground, because love-as-a-verb is difficult to express without eye-contact.
Interesting take on it.
I think another question is do people automatically love or is it something they make others earn from them. I have always loved first and let people slowly chip away or build up the amount of love I give to them. But love is something that will be profoundly effected by technology. Love at first blockchain! Haha it will be a thing, possibly, hopefully, wherever people seek love they will find it.
Blockchain love now that's radical ☺
Lol. It could happen. You know cyptrocurrency is mainstream when you can buy boats and hoes with it!