We meet someone online and filled the voids of the conversations we
feel with the fabricated meanings behind their emoticons and hollow “lols”.
These are the false realities Tinder have given our generation. These days,
every interaction we have with someone we met online is a series on interview
questions. “Do you like this movie? Do you like sushi? Yes? You’re practically
my soul mate! Here is the link to my Facebook account. Oh! Do you like travelling?
The way we connect online is as if we are sitting by our computers
with a checklist of attributes and aspirations that the person on the person
needs to fulfill before we find them worthy. But most of the times, even if they
don’t, we ignore it. Hoping that maybe our quest for love will end with this
person regardless if they hope to be a farmer and you have big city dreams. In
your mind, these details are insignificant. In your fantasy he will change for
you, his dreams only matter in the scope of your own.
We tell this person all the dark secrets we are never able to tell the
people who truly matter. Why would we tell them when we could tell a stranger
who has never had to earn it. We build connections we think are there because
the idea of going out in the real world and finding love, and the idea of
failing at it is too scary too face.
We have a bad day and they’re there with a text with their face
contorted in a concerned look. We forget their attention span for true
well-being may only be as long as the 10 seconds Instagram video lasted. When
you finally do meet this person face to face, you realize just how different
great lighting can make someone look in pictures as opposed to in person. “I
never knew they had that mole on the side of their face? Why didn’t they mention
that? Am I being catfished?” You’ll quickly discover that conversation can be
stunted and awkward without the fifteen minutes of delay time and texting
allots of crafting perfectly humorous and witty responses.
After conversation punctures a hole in the illusion life you have
built with this person, you’ll justify it to
yourself in a way that makes it seem like you want to try them on in every way,
not just intellectually. You’ll want to make sure you’ve given them their fair
audition. Their hands don’t feel as rough and as right as you thought they
would when you pictured this moment in your head. They don’t know how to kiss
you or hold you or connect with you like you were so sure you both would be
able to. You realize the person you have been talking to for weeks, maybe, is
just someone you invented by filling in the lines between who this person truly
is, and who you wish you had.