Well, if it is possible to love words on a page, then I guess it is possible to fall in love with people "here". Actually, there technically is no "here" on the internet is there? Where is "here". Cyberspace? There are no people here in cyberspace? The only thing really here, in this location in cyberspace, is a bunch of words and symbols and pictures representing people's stories about themselves. They are not the people themselves. The stories may or may not accurately represent people here. Trevor and Linda taught us that. Lots of people "loved" her. She didn't even exist. So was their love real or not?
I think the problem is that "love" is not something concrete. It is really an abstract concept. A name we give to a feeling inside of us. When we have the feeling we call it "love". Many things can trigger the feeling in us. Flesh and blood people we can reach out and touch. For some, the feeling can be triggered with a picture, for others, the feeling we call love can be triggered by the right combination of words on a page that convey a mental image or ideal we find pleasing. For some, the feeling can be triggered solely by their own imaginations without any stimulus whatsoever.
That's not enough for us though. We always want to attach this feeling to another object, or a person. I love my car. I love this person. I love my hair. Yeah, well, next week, you may hate them all. So what? Love is a state of mind, like any other. It comes and goes. We also always want to ask ourselves if it is "real". Well, yes, it is real. It is a real state that you have invoked within your own mind and body. It exists only there. Does that make it any less real?
What may or may not be real is the stories about the people and objects we focus on to stimulate this state in ourselves. Well, the stories really exist, but they may not be based on anything that really exists. What it boils down to is this: When we think we love someone on this forum, we have really fallen in love with a story about them. In every case. What we love is the particular way they have strung words together to convey their own thought processes. Or we love the way we think they look judging by their avatar. Unless we met them in person, which some have, and then we can say we feel love and it is stimulated by seeing/smelling/touching/hearing the person themselves. That's based on a lot more than mere words but still, it's a state of mind and body within you and therefore subject to change as with every other state of mind and body.
It is not really a deep, full intimacy in the way that being with someone in person is. For instance, if we read a book about a celebrity, every word of it true, of course, do we then say we "know" that celebrity. What if it is an autobiography? Do we know them better? Do we love them? Well some think they do. Is it the love real or not? Well both, the love is real, but what it is based on is a fantasy. The fantasy is the belief that we know the other person because we read words about them on a page, factual or not.
Some people are a lot more open to this feeling we call "love" than other people, that's for sure!
Cog