people come and go so fast around here

the online world is like a masquerade party, a grand story we can read, watch, or take part in... a write-your-own-part interactive novel... through words and images, style and design, profiles and names, we can create any personae we can think of... one person can be two, three or more different people online... all it takes is time, imagination, consistency, and creativity...

and then there are the journals... diaries... blogs... personal words representing a life... how do we know which are without pretense... how do we know which writer does not play to the audience... how do we know which personae is real and which is wishful thinking or even deliberate creative play?...

and then we connect... or at least we think we do... we read words, look at images, get a feel for who the writer is... we share our own words and images... how much do we filter?... how much of what we see is what we want to see?... how much of what we feel is what we want to feel?... and even if the writer is truly trying to share real life as honestly as possible, how well is the person writing represented accurately... ultimately, how well do any of us know ourselves?...

excuses, cop-outs, or just plain old reality?

even the best of intentions in a face to face relationship where eye contact, body language, and all the senses can absorb and interpret another person often leads to misunderstanding, conflict, and foolish or painful perceptions, judgments, and decisions... here online, where we only have partial sensory input and we only see/hear what the sender puts into web language, logic points to the increased probability of misinterpretation, misunderstanding, conflict, and misperceptions... some come online angry with the world and are looking for escape or even to fight, at least verbally, with others... some seek only control of something, their own cyber piece of the universe... and some of us do want to share the dream of true love and passion online and offline so much...

add to all this the fact that many of us turn to online communications because we are bored or lonely, or because we are shy or have low self-esteem or we haven't developed confidence in social skills offline, or because we've been traumatized in the physical world, or because we've been burned in relationships and fear trust or fear intimacy or no longer trust our own judgment in our heart or mind...

and yet we still want to share so much...

so we turn to words... images... creativity to express who we are and the art and life and desire inside... and maybe these potentials for mishaps in communication raising the odds against truly connecting with a true friend or soulmate makes the challenge all the more intriguing because the prize, actually finding the one to fulfill our dreams, is so precious... and perhaps it is safer online...

still, for many, the common social stereotypes (a/s/l, race, age, ethnicity, religion, politics, social and economic status, beliefs), most of which has little or no meaning in cyber sharing, still become reasons to turn people away and reduce the chances of our finding that one person who fulfills all or hopes, desires, dreams...

and then, after hours and days and weeks and months and even years of sorting through the words and images and messages and communications, after we choose to trust that we've come to know someone who is writing and sharing cyber time with us, after someone has become real in our hearts and minds, even after we touch ourselves imagining it is him or her - with the pull of a plug or a click of the delete key, a person can simply disappear from the web and for all intensive purposes, vanish from life... all contact broken... gone... as if they never existed... almost as if we suddenly wake up and look around and find they were just part of a dream, a fantasy, a story, a fairy tale...

yes, like it or not, believe it or not, the online world is like a masquerade party, a grand story we create together... but then, maybe that is life offline as well... so what masks shall we wear today?...

candora

mostly dead � online groups short stories

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NOTE: Due to excessive comment SPAM, comments have been turned off... ironically, this month is the renewal for supergold membership and the comments feature... bad timing... you know how much I love feedback, so maybe there's be comments again one of these days... until then, please leave a note... thanks J