Debate Online relationships- real or not?

sen·sa·tion·al·ize ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sn-ssh-n-lz)
tr.v. sen·sa·tion·al·ized, sen·sa·tion·al·iz·ing, sen·sa·tion·al·iz·es
To cast and present in a manner intended to arouse strong interest, especially through inclusion of exaggerated or lurid details: “doubted the ability of the liberal press to handle such information fairly, to refrain from sensationalizing it” (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein).

So, to over sensationalize would be to do this even more excessively and linger on such topics as, oh say, one girl who made the mistake of finding a sexual predator.

How I take this personally: It's all how you've been raised. Don't believe me? Ok, think this way. If your parents were very strict on who you had as a friend as a child, and wanted to meet everyone you knew to make sure noone who was going to start trouble was in the bunch, are you easily going to connect with those you meet online? Whereas those who were rasied in a more open enviorment, parents caring but at the same time, not stopping them from making their own choices.. Well, I'd think if you were raised with freewill, you'd excercise it.

Finally though, there are people who are raised with no structure. Girls who end up pregnant before they get out of highschool, or guys who are in and out of a prison of some sort their entire lives, those are the ones who usually have the most problems. They don't tell you this on the news, but the girls who get abducted by these sexual predators usually initiate the meeting. It's funny, I once thought differently, but it's not. People around my age who have such horrible things happen to them arn't all these innocent and scard girls, they're girls who enjoy sex. Sluts. =/

Think of myspace.. If you put the following on a myspace, are you not bringing it upon yourself?
Note: This is someone's honest to god myspace message.

"i like to drink and f*ck... my mom is never home so if you ever want to come over you should."

I feel no pity for idiots and wh*res.

 

I would say to never risk it. NEVER. Who the heck knows if your talking to this really hot 16 year old guy who gave his picture to you.....or a 43 year old sexual predator giving you this picture he got off the internet feeding you all this trash that he's your age? Why would someone even want to take that risk? Getting a cute guy or getting sexually harassed? Or, just finding a cute guy in school you know and going out with him? It's people's decission, and I can't change it, but anybody who does try I think is just a major risk-taker and doesn't think of the concequences (sry if I spelled that wrong) before doing the actions.

 

Why would someone do it? Because they've fallen in love. It can blossom even when you can't see the other person, and hell, it can actually be closer than a relationship that exists IRL, as odd as it sounds.

Obviously, you need to take some precautions and be careful, but the fact is that, even if someone could be someone they're not, they could also b everything they say they are, they could be more. They could be everything you ever asked for.

If you've talked to the person a lot and really got to know them, I do feel that someone who was only pretending would either become apparent, or have disappeared. Once you know someone well enough to truly say you've fallen in love with them, you can usually tell. After all, you don't hardly fall in love with strangers, do you?

And, if you do decide to meet, don't be an idiot and go to the person's apartment or whatever, pick a public place where there will be many people- do this for your own sake and for theirs. If the person *is* who they say they are, then they'll have no problem with it and indeed might be more comfortable with that themselves- after all, from their point of view, you might be a rapist, stalker, etc.

Essentially, it comes down to trust, and to common sense, and this is for meeting anyone offline. When it's someone you've gotten to care about, well, then I can tell you with certainty that the joy of meeting them for the first time is one that's difficult to match.