Imagine -- an endless "black book" of potential dates, one where the undesirables, the stalkers or possible psychopaths can be dismissed into the void with the click of a mouse.
For the lovelorn, the Internet offers a virtual world of romance and fantasy, an anonymous venue for trysts in the privacy of your bedroom or study.
All it takes is registering for an online chat, picking an icon that shows you're looking for love and you'll find it instantly and in myriad ways.
The accessibility of cyberlove, where anonymity offers a cloak of safety and the possibility to play several roles at once, is likely to whittle away at the concept of monogamy, said Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, the Israeli author of Love Online.
"You may have an online relationship at the same time as an offline relationship," said Ben-Ze'ev, a Haifa University philosopher. "Then, because it is so easy to form an online relationship, it is very tempting to form more."
As the generation born into the Internet age grows older, exclusivity in romantic relationships will fall by the wayside, or at least change in definition, he believes.
Partners may lay down rules for one another's virtual encounters, or even enjoy them together.
It may take time.
In May 2002, the BBC reported that a woman slashed her husband's thyroid artery as he slept because he was planning to bring a woman he had met on the Internet to England.
The rules of the game are different in cyberspace. Popularity marks go not to the handsome or beautiful but the virtuoso typists and masters of the written word. Intimacy comes through sharing deep secrets and buried fantasies.
Ben-Ze'ev, an expert on emotions who read blogs (Internet diaries) about other's experiences with cyberlove to write his book, noted that "human beings have never before had access to such an ambivalent type of romantic relationship."
The danger of predators in cyberspace, he says, is small. The risk comes only when virtual love moves off the Internet and into the real world -- as it did in the death of a 16-year-old Israeli youth at the start of the Palestinian uprising in 2000.
The teenager met a Palestinian woman posing as a tourist on the Internet. The woman lured him to Jerusalem with promises of a tete-a-tete, but instead of romance, the teenager found death at the hands of Palestinian gunmen.
Israeli journalist Daphna Lewy first entered the arena of virtual love on assignment, creating more than 30 unique personalities ranging from a teenage boy to elderly grandmother.
"Everyone I know is doing it," 40-year-old Lewy said. "At the end I wrote the article and was left with one of these identities I related to most. I really got to know lots of people, it wasn't just romantic experiences."
In Israel, where most surfers choose to communicate in Hebrew, long-term cyberlove is rare, primarily because of the proximity of virtual lovers in a small country.
"What characterizes Israelis on the Internet is that they use the chats and dating services usually only to make the first acquaintance, not to build a long-term relationship," Ben Ze'ev said.
Lewy, who speaks fluent English, met many new friends by surfing the Net and turned a two-year cyberfriendship with a British man into an offline love story.
She said the Internet's advantage to real-life dating is its initial anonymity that allows for the baring of one's soul -- while also offering a quick getaway.
"If I go too far, expose myself too much, feel uncomfortable or the reaction I get is not really to my liking, then I can click and that is it, the relationship is over," she said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese