Posted: Apr 26, 2008, 1:46 AM CST
I think that thinking about a relationship and being ready to deal with the reality of one are very different things.
Being on places like cs gives people an opportunity to realise if they are ready to REALLY deal with somone in their lives or not, because we talk with so many different kinds of people with different takes on life, so it's a useful tool in dealing with what we THINK we want.
Given that opportunity, though, is only the beginning. We still have to go out there and DO something about it, and that is often where the dificulty lies. Even being on here doesn't help you with the reality of interacting face to face with another person. So much still depends on stereotypical conditioning, like what a person looks like, their mannerisms, habits and such, and any given individuals reaction, based on past experience, to another person.
I'm beginning to find, too, that many people seem to change their minds about what they want after being on here for a while. When they spend a bit of time here and their lonliness is assuaged a bit, they find that maybe it wasn't a relationship or marriage that they want at all, but maybe friendship or pen pals or just someone to talk to at a distance on their computers.
I often wonder how many people found that this was a good opportunity for changing their minds of what they thought they wanted, or if they found some aspect of themselves, in relating to people on here, that they hadn't found any other way?