Fragments of the interstellar space
Social changes are inevitable as the development of the human world occurs in a functional aspect. Certainly, means of communication are undertaking involuntary conversion. Interpersonal relation finds their way in every possible pattern. Boundaries between people are no longer clearly defined. Ambiguous expressions, disguised sentiments, intangible qualities of affection, whether deeply committed or avidly enjoyed. While puzzled by the uncertainties, I believe we are also experiencing a varying degree of individual liberation. The fascinating charismatic chaos leads us to either an intoxicating immersion or the temptation to conquer…
Social media, a product of the speedy evolving world, presented us tech-savvy generation a new form of relationship — cyber love. 24 years ago, the first mainstream dating site Match.com launched. And then there were applications of similar functions released, for example, Tinder and OkCupid. On the platforms, there are people merely taking pleasure in making friends from around the world, alleviating daily boredom, or looking for fast love to loose their physical urges. As to the default setting matches different gender together, I presuppose people going on the apps are in search of love, of inexhaustible variety.
As time progresses, especially thanks to technological development, our life is made easier and more convenient. Meanwhile, the time we spend going from A to B is compressed. We try to apply it to everything — modern people necessitate things to be done at incredible velocity. In the past, before social media has gotten so popular, there was still some appetite for romantic sentimentality or even recalling nostalgia of the passionate moments while chasing love against the sun. However, it is timesaving to meet people online, since people up there are all in need of something from someone. No need to walk in a bar and wait, if lucky enough, to chance upon someone that is mutually acceptable for both, or be snubbed and go home with even more frustrating feelings. It is not just about one-night stands, it also utilizes in a serious relationship. We are all transferred into data and images under the precise mechanism, paired, with the help of accurate calculation.
Online dating, I would say it one of my bad habits. Even more, an addiction. I do not know why I make such a serious accusation. Throughout these ten years, I have always tried to quit the deep dependence I developed on talking to strangers online. Too old for me, swipe. Not my type of guy, swipe. Woah, an erect penis! Sorry, that’s not what I’m looking for, swipe. On some occasions, I come upon decent guys. We chat. If we want to keep in touch, we exchange our contact information (except that very often the relationship just fizzles out). If not, then we will just let go. There is a sense of loss when doing so. It is like the cord connecting the guy and me snaps. According to Newton’s third law of motion, there is supposed to be a force simultaneously exerts from the opposite direction, which is somewhere in the parallel universe in which the guy is located. Despite that the force is mysteriously absorbed. I give out something, lose something, I assume the object has done the same thing and feel the same way, despite that each of us will not get to know once the bond in-between is broken. I waft in a daze in the gravity-free space, floating weightlessly in the wormhole. People meet in the parallel universe when the invisible frames of dimensions constructed our world collapse. This concept is somehow contradictory when it collides with the businesslike way of modern life. Because of its poeticality. However, all the behavior (chasing love in hope of a blissful while short-lived romance or sublimating it, ease of mind) which happens reasonably in this phenomenal world, reminds me of the seemingly preposterous dialogue in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland. A conversation drifting between Alice and The Cheshire Cat:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where — — ” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,” said the Cat.
“ — — so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
I think I am one of the maddest, the most incurable romantic having aspirations to find true love in countless swipes. It is not that I am lazy or busy, it is that the reality is so complicated that I do not know how to deal with it. I feel more me in the form of pixels. But as I walk determinedly trying to go to that “somewhere” (that is, true love), experiencing repetition, twists and turns, I start to question if that “somewhere” I long for is just a random destination I am going to arrive due to an irrelevant decision I made when long ago coming to a fork in the road, not knowing which way to go…
