I know a couple who are from wildly different places in different hemispheres. How did they meet? On the internet, of course.
If you’re old enough, the idea of meeting romantic partners online still has a frisson of mixed emotions. It feels a little risqué, but also a little taboo.
In my formative years, we viewed internet dating as the last resort of the sad and lonely, not a tool for the sexually active.
Some memories are persistent.
But the more you unpick them, the looser they become.
How did I meet my wife? At work, naturally. How did I meet my university friends? By going to university, unsurprisingly. How do I know my neighbours? By moving into the house next door, self-evidently.
Among my peers of the ‘old world’ of my teens, I think there was a sense that our relationships were pure and authentic, free of the dead hand of digital technology.
But of course, they were simply the result of older networks. Back then, you found your job in a newspaper ad. You found your university by being posted a prospectus. You found a house in a shop window.
Today, I wouldn’t dream of getting a job, enrolling on a course or finding a house without the aid of the internet. Why on earth would I narrow my search to only those places and resources I could physically reach? Absurd!
And so, my quaint old idea that internet love is the preserve of the desperate or the deviant is laid bare for what it is: a memory from another age.
Thank you for reading my thoughts… online.
Talking of t’internet, Are You A Smartphone Addict?
