VIRTUAL RELATIONSHIPS

Computers are nowadays used everywhere: in schools, at home, in companies, institutions, and so on. One of the bad aspects of computer use is that even the children who cannot read and write yet, are already used to this machine. They develop at a very early age habit of playing on the computers for hours on end. According to the latest researches, computers do not improve our health and they can seriously damage our system when they are not properly used. The work done by a computer operator is generally quite exhausting and intensive, regardless of the country. For instance, Germans include this type of work among the 40 most health damaging jobs. It is considered that working on the computer should not exceed 50% of the working period.

When we work at the monitor, we need to read, type, analyze something, correct mistakes, and perhaps do all that more than once. Yet in exchange the eyes have to try adjusting to all that pressure, and for this reason, we may assert that the computer really does have a negative impact on our eyesight. People for whom computer work is their bread and butter have the most health complaints because of muscle and joint diseases. This might be restricted to neck torpor, pain in the shoulders and in the loins, etc. However, there can be more grievous problems such as the carpal tunnel syndrome, which refers to the damage of arm nerves due to the excessive time spent working on the computer. All this bad effect of the computer on our eyes can be found under the name of CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome), which includes dryness of the eyes, eyestrain, backache, neck ache, wrest ache, reduced acuity of vision, distress, reduced capacity of concentration, and so on.

Those who need to spend a lot of time in front of a computer, encounter two main problems: the excess of information and the electromagnetic fields.

Firstly, we might try to see what that excess, that overload of information refers to. Whereas our heart spends energy for blood circulation, and while our lungs need energy for the breathing process, when it comes to our brain, it requires energy for managing pieces of information. Some scientists consider that the human brain uses 1,200 Kcal every day. Thus, the problem occurs when our brain needs to take away the energy resources from other organs, in order to supplement for the energy lapse it has to face. Because of that, specialists like computer programmers and engineers are often under a high level of mental pressure, which may lead to anxiety, lack in energy, emotional instability, inefficiency in completing the required work. Another damage brought about by computer work is the unavoidable exposure to the so-called electromagnetic fields. Contrary to some people's opinion, they do affect the biological processes of our body, which can be even more sensitive to weak electromagnetic fields than to strong electromagnetic fields.

In fact, some persons who do not react in any way to strong electromagnetic fields might feel certain dizziness because of exposure to weak electromagnetic fields. That is because those low intensity magnetic fields reduce the intensity of blood pressure. For that reason, we are very likely to sense a decrease in our body temperature after over-using the computer.

Not only disadvantages come with computers. Today the Internet is used globally for a variety of purposes. People can send their friends an electronic «Hello». They can download a recipe for a new type of lasagna. They can argue about politics on-line, and even shop and bank electronically in their homes. People can tap into libraries, tap into weather satellites, download computer programs, talk to other people with related interests, send electronic mail all across the world.

Admittedly, there are some advantages to meeting the person of your dreams via the Internet. First, you don’t have to make a fool of yourself crossing a crowded disco to ask the apple of your eye for a dance.

Crossing a thawing lake in April is probably only slightly less uncomfortable. And then there is always the risk that the girl will agree to your invitation, which means that you will actually have to do what you set out to do in the first place: dance. More than one white man has lost a good woman by doing an imitation of an epileptic fit on the dance floor while attempting to cha-cha.

Second, a person can lie like the devil himself over the Internet. You can tell your Internet intimate that you are some tall, dark, handsome freak of nature, at the same time you are sitting at the computer in your underwear, smoking a cigarette and drinking beer, chatting about your expensive spa membership.

Third, you can lie about your age, especially if your posted photo was from the last millennium. You can even lie about your sex. Boy won’t that make for an interesting first date in the vanishing 3-D world known as Reality. Yes, Reality Bites, but people always sounds so much more appealing in the ethereal realm of the Internet. The irony/tragedy is that once the two electric love birds finally decide to unplug themselves from the Internet, take a shower, and meet, they'll both be checking their mobile phones for SMS’s from other potential candidates. Insane, I say!

Forth, Internet dating is a quick way to sort through all the ‘losers’ who may try to infiltrate your life like the latest wombat virus. Here’s where you get to act like Donald Trump from his cutthroat show, The Apprentice, (‘You’re FIRED!’) and finally find that one person out there in Hyperspace who shares all of your same charming qualities and interests. Wow, maybe the two of you make monthly payments to the same computer server. How romantic! How convenient!

Finally, Internet dating may be addictive. This is something nobody warned you about. Seriously, if surfing the Web has become the main social activity of an individual, then who’s to say that this ‘love of your life’ won’t download a new friend the moment you start talking in your sleep?! ‘Goodness! He’s acting like one of those HUMANS I read about in Wikipedia!’

Surfing the Web has become, it seems, not the means to an end (a relationship) but an end in itself. Maybe it’s just my age, but the idea of meeting somebody over the Internet seems about as romantic as reading the instruction manual for my VCR. It is an altogether cold and impersonal act; devoid of the human touch... It’s enough to crush my hardware into software, really.

Internet matchmaking lacks the notion of destiny or fate that once played a big role in the start of any relationship. Okay, so maybe a guy and girl happened to be ‘on line’ (or is it better to say, ‘in line’?) at the very same moment, but beyond that, where is the magic, the stardust, the enchantment? Stupid Cupid has been turned into road kill on the Internet superhighway.

And yes, I am sure that there are many people who have found their life partner, or even soul mate, via the Internet. Indeed, this whole method of meeting new people - especially in our hyper age when nobody has the time to shop for groceries, let alone shop for a partner - is probably the wave of the future.

I really fear that soon we’ll all be branded and tagged and bar-coded and listed on Amazon.com under the ‘Available Human Section.’ Or maybe just date on-line cyborgs?