By Deanna Schnotala

From the recent Manti Te’o scandal to the new MTV show Catfish, cyber relationships are be- coming more prominent in today’s society. They have always had negative connotations tied to them; comments such as “he’s probably a 40 year- old pedophile” or “she’s probably a dude” tend to make people hesitant about dating someone they have only met on the internet. Contrary to what most people think, cyber relationships don’t always end badly. But there will always be those stories…

It was the summer going into her freshman year when Alyssa Argentine, Div. 363, met a boy, “Robby”, online. It all started when she saw her friend messaging him.

“I thought he was cute, so [my friend] told him to message me,” Argentine said. “We started talk- ing and after about a week, he told me he ‘wanted to call me his’. I didn’t take it seriously because it was online, so [as a joke] I said sure.”

Although she agreed to be in a relationship with him online, Argentine said there were many things that just didn’t add up about “Robby”.

“His ‘friends’ kept messaging me and asking about him, and I just got really weirded out,” she said.

Argentine later learned that “Robby’s friends” were actually fake Facebooks managed by none other than “Robby” himself. This was just one of the many things about her supposed boyfriend that just didn’t add up.

“All of his pictures looked kind of different, and then I found out he lived in Seattle,” Argentine said. Shortly after that, she decided to ask her

friend about “Robby”. “I just saw her talking to him, so I assumed

she actually knew him,” Argentine said. “But then I asked her about it, and she told me she met him online. After that, I knew that he had to be fake.”

It was then that Argentine decided to break it off with her “online boyfriend”.

“I didn’t take the relationship seriously because of the fact that it was online, so it didn’t really bother me that much that it ended up being fake,” she said.

At this point, Argentine thought she would never have to deal with “Robby” again. But again, she was mistaken.

“About a month later, he contacted me saying he lied to me. It turned out to be a girl, and she told me she did it because she wanted to find out if she was a lesbian,” she said. “I told her she was nuts and blocked her.”

In the end, Argentine got one thing out of this cyber relationship.

“It just gives me a funny story to tell. I got cat- fished!” she said, referring to the television show. “I just think [people who lie about themselves online] are crazy.”

There are many other horrifying stories about online relationships, and those are usually the only ones people hear. But what about the stories with the happy endings?

Diana Chaidez, Div.382, is currently in her sec- ond online relationship. She was introduced to her boyfriend through a friend she also met on- line while playing video games. Although she and her boyfriend haven’t been dating a considerably long time they started dating Jan. 8th, they had been talking for four months prior. They have yet

to meet because he lives in Buffalo, New York, but Chaidez says they have plans to.

“It’s mainly just finding time and the way our schedules are,” she said. “He can’t leave school, and I don’t think my parents will let me fly all the way to New York by myself.”

As for her parents, Chaidez says they each have different views on her online relationship.

“My dad doesn’t see it as a real relationship,” she said. “But my mom says as long as I’m happy, it’s fine.”

And according to Chaidez, she is. “I am happy, really happy with him and the

relationship we have,” she said. “Even though he’s not here, he can still make me smile and give me butterflies.”

While her current relationship is going great, Chaidez’s previous online relationship did not end well.

“We [were in a relationship] for three months, and then his [supposed] ex-girlfriend messaged me, saying they were still together,” she said. “Af- ter that, there were a lot of unanswered questions, so I just had to leave.”

Trust is a common necessity in most relation- ships, whether they are online or ‘in person’. But Chaidez argues that trust is even more important in an online relationship.

“You definitely have to have a lot more trust,” she said. “’In person’ relationships, you see them every day and you know what they’re doing. I don’t know what my boyfriend’s doing.”

After her first experience, Chaidez argues that she is more careful with people online now.

“I learned from the first one. I’m definitely more cautious now,” she said. “The first month into my current relationship, I hadn’t seen him

on Skype or anything yet, so I had all these ques- tions. I thought, ‘What if he’s lying to me? What if he’s not my age? What if he’s not a guy?’ But once I saw him on Skype, I was [reassured].”

The fact that Chaidez can physically see her boyfriend over webcam is a big reason why she doesn’t have many doubts about him. “Skyping” with him is apart of her daily routine, along with other ways of communication.

“We text each other throughout the day. Some nights we talk on the phone, but usually every night from around nine to 11, we skype.”

Chaidez plans on meeting her boyfriend in per- son by this upcoming summer.

“I expect it to be awkward at first. I’m so used to seeing him over webcam,” she said. “I’ll get to see the ‘real real’ him, and I’ll probably get really emotional.”

But what about when it’s time for him to go back?

“It’ll definitely be harder [not seeing each other] after we meet for the first time. I’ll have experi- enced how he hugs, how feels, all that kind of stuff,” she said. “But, if the relationship continues after that, I think it’ll keep me going. I’ll think, ‘Remember how he hugged you? You get to feel that again. Stick through this.’”

When it comes to love online, Chaidez believes it’s very possible.

“I would say I love him,” she said. “I love him for his personality. You definitely get to know a per- son’s personality first when you’re dating online because you don’t see them first. Love can happen

at any moment between any two people.”