What is This Thing Called, Love?
Posted on March 2, 2007
Filed Under Pathetic |
We all want it. Maybe we all need it.
But, what is it? And why do we need it so much?
Love Me Do
It is, by now, a trite statement that humans are social animals. Nonetheless, being social defines nearly everything about us. So, this desire to be loved and accepted is deep-rooted and, no doubt, was originally linked to a higher probability of survival.
“I mean, I love ice cream and chocolate, so what does it mean to say, ‘I love you’?”
I’m quoting a former girlfriend of mine. Not a long-term relationship, for obvious reasons.
For starters, ice cream won’t have your babies and won’t care for you when you’re sick or dying. Ice cream won’t perform unspeakable sexual acts (although it can be a fun accessory) or stick up for you even when it knows you’re wrong.
Ice cream won’t die for you and you won’t die for ice cream.
Meanwhile…
The internet opens up new avenues for love and acceptance, some of them real but most of them false. We can find people with whom we have more things in common than we can find in the much smaller set of people with whom we interact in real life. This can be extremely gratifying, but the interactions are necessarily limited. Extending these relationships to real life is perceived as being risky. People may be more likely to lie when they can hide behind an anonymous mask.
Nonetheless, the internet opens up possibilities for new kinds of interactions and new kinds of love and acceptance. One can interact on a purely intellectual level, for example, without worrying about a geeky inability to dress oneself, or the need for tape to hold one’s glasses together. Or, one can find others who share a specialized interest (or even fetish), while still pursuing other interests with face-to-face interactions.
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2 Responses to “What is This Thing Called, Love?”
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X: We should mate.
Y: What?
X: Date! We should date some time. Socially. Go out and kick it.
[Y retches, then forces it down]
X: Are you okay?
Y: I’m fine. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
X: In some cultures, they only eat vomit. I never been there, but I read about it… *in a book*.
Huh?
Luckily for me, you’re the only person who reads anything I write.