60's IRC-style
Fingers touching plastic Keys that unlock whole universes World travel virtually made possible from a chair 60's values revisited This time in a safer, more sterile environment With computer viruses feared instead of A death warrant. People connecting again, risking again Reaching out for love and needed comfort. Taking more time to get to know each other Byte by byte It's addicting, this new playground of ours And we're all heady with the flush of stimulated Brain cells, the promise of love spicy innuendo even business potential. How can this be so satisfying, these electrons on a screen? It is simple really. Dreams are power filled With the brain being the wildest erogenous zone And hopefully some values *never* go out of style.
You come to channel for the first time and the first thing you may notice is that people scroll by at a fast pace. You may even feel pretty overwhelmed by it all even though most people seem nice and excitement is in the "air." Soon you are able to distinguish a bit between personalities using this generally unfamiliar written medium and people start to become more *real*. As you get to know people even more...it is amazing how intimate this IRC-THING might become.
Never being one much for romance novels or explicit books, it was a phenomenon that totally took me by surprise when I first got on-line. Daily, people of all ages would be making sexual advances and the channel itself was full of playful and spicy innuendoes. Channel flirting and sauciness either seem to add or to detract from your experience of the channels. Some channels like #40plus efnet make it a clear point that it is totally inappropriate . Others seem to thrive on it from regulars at least.
#Truth_OR_DARE would sometimes be set up with regulars and people would share with each other in a candid way that was unheard-of in the non- irc world. Actually I am not sure why it fell apart. Maybe because at times it got out of hand (no pun intended...) and people felt very uncomfortable. Perhaps people just got bored with the same kind of questions. How many times can one listen to "how did you lose your virginity"--type questions and still maintain interest?! Maybe with all the IRC parties starting, the safety of relative anonymity faded. It might have been just too much to meet someone face to face and be blushing beet red from things shared in TorD. However, the other day I happened to notice an url on someone's homepage: There is an actual web page and channel called ADULT TRUTH OR DARE. Haven't checked it out personally, most likely won't, so you are on your own there *if* you DARE to explore.*GRIN*
But it is CLEAR that there is LOTS of electricity beyond the amps pulled by the computer itself. Fast friendships are formed, there is love to be fallen into and sometime sadly out of, and sometimes just plain lust. Pollyanna had me on her cable access show last year around this time. The topic was love and meeting people. (Pollyanna did an incredible job of putting all those shows together in my opinion!!!) Other guests included someone from a personal want ads newspaper, someone from a dating service, and a columnist who writes about relationships. The discussion was quite lively and I was challenged to explain why this electronic format was at all viable for people to meet each other and successfully fall in love.
I maintained that people feel relatively safe here. There doesn't seem to be the same kind of risks one takes by going to a singles bar to meet people. I also believe that while this is limiting in some ways, e.g., missing some of the verbal and visual cues that we depend on for information, people have more time to get to know each other. There is something almost old fashioned about the way of writing to each other and slowly building a relationship. We also get an opportunity to watch (even lurk a bit) to see how people behave . The INNER BEAUTY of a person is what shines through instead of the OUTWARD appearance being the initial main focus. "I personally can't wait to see what the research or the history books will say about this incredible phenomenon of irc! Maybe, just maybe, we really *are* creating electronic pheromones! *GRIN* "