A "theoretical" question ;)

[mousme]

Yeah, so, once again Phnee has been thinking far too much for her own good (I think someone posted the other day that one of their pet peeves is people referring to themselves in the third person, which I kinda like doing as long as I'm being sarcastic... anyway), which has led me to this post.

Since most (if not all) of you are far more experienced than I am relationship-wise, I have a few points on which I'd appreciate your opinion/experience/advice/input/whatever.

Namely (this was inspired mostly by griffen but also by a numer of others) the topic of internet and or/long-distance relationships. Allow me to elaborate (not that you have much say in the matter, and good Lord I've used a lot of parentheses today!):

Up until recently, I had the (admittedly close-minded) view that an internet-based relationship wasn't as good as one based on mutual acquaintance and physical accesssibility.

Now, obviously, not so sure.

So, I was wondering: how do these things work? How does one go from being a random internet acquaintance to having an online relationship? What are the advantages, the disadvantages, the pitfalls, the good, the bad and the ugly?

This actually *is* a theoretical post, in spite of the quotation marks in the subject line (I thought they were funny), but I'd still like to know your opinions on the matter.

Thanks all! :)

Comments

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Well, you've seen how Kay and I work, right?

A relationship isn't about the physical anyway, at least not for me. It's about the mind and heart of the person you are with.

Kay and I love each other, even though we may never meet in person.

Does that help?

Re:

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Uh, sort of, but it doesn't tell me much more than I already knew. :)

I mean, how did you and Kay know, or decide, that you wanted to become partners, for instance?

[griffen.livejournal.com]

How do you know when you're in person with someone that you want to become partners? Does it make any difference what they look like? To me, it doesn't -- although I think all my partners are beautiful.

It's getting to know someone. When you know them well enough, you may fall in love with them. That's what happened with Kay and me. We got to know each other well enough that we realized we were in love, and that's.... that's it. It wasn't nearly as complicated as it sounds.