Textual Intimacy

Chat

Through online chat, people can meet other people from the inside out, discover romance, uncover hidden desires, experiment with their sexuality in a potentially accepting environment, express themselves in creative (deceptive?) ways, and learn how to type onomatopoetically--with only one hand.

What is chat?

• "Writing about a divorce case caused by an on-line extramarital affair, Ian Katz states that on-line services "have become the singles bars of the 1990's" (Katz, 1996) Online chat rooms where people engage in cybersex, as defined above, are found on most online services as well as on the internet 6 . Nguyen and Alexander note that, according to Jack Richard of Boardwatch magazine, "50,000 now engage in daily cybersex using up to 700 real-time chat lines [chat rooms]". (Nguyen & Alexander, 1996, 116)" - "Cyborgasms: Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat," a Master's thesis by Robin Hamman
• "Sometimes in cyberspace the slightest misinterpretation of text can lead to major misunderstandings." - "Cyborgasms: Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat," a Master's thesis by Robin Hamman
• Has anyone tried it?
• Different types of chat
• Different chat spaces
• Demonstration--Precautions, Etiquette, Techniques, etc.
• Try it out!
• Discussion *
• Other Cybersociology references
• Textual Intimacy
  • SocioSite: "NetLove and Cybersex: The (im)possibilities of bodiless intimacy" byAlbert Benschop:

    "Can we imagine a virtual love affiliation? And could we enjoy a fictitious, purely imagined love affair?
    
    The stories about intimate relations which were established via the Internet do have one thing in common: the lovers experience a grievous and sometimes tortuous split between body and mind. In computer-mediated interaction and communication many mental and psychological aspects of intimate relations can show up well. But this is not true for the bodily side of the coin. The potential lovers create their intimate virtual reality, but they [do not?] share the same physical room at the same time.
    
    This lack of corporality should not only be evaluated in a negative way. The physical distance may under certain conditions offer unique opportunities to embrace and kiss everyone in the virtual world. Some people say that they dare to express all their emotions on the Internet because they know they leave their bodies at home. The Internet makes bodiless intimacy possible. The intimate relations which develop in the virtual worlds only exist 'between the ears' of the participants. They share the illusion of intimacy. But there are real, sincere emotions attached to these illusions. So for the lovers themselves the virtual relation is anything but fictive. There are virtual lovers who value their bodiless intimate relation more than their physical personal contacts in their own environment. In such cases the limitations of computer-mediated intimacy become visible: it is a digital torture when in the end there is only that black screen staring at you."

  • From Leonardo, Volume 30 No. 5 (1997):
    
    "Memories of a Virtual Butterfly: The World and the Screen"
    
    by Merel Mirage
    
    "The author discusses her recent work _Subject: emotions encoded_, an installation that presents a model of communication between two strangers meeting online. In this "tele-romantic" dialogue, the emotional intensity of the exchange is accentuated by a computer-generated butterfly of the genus _Morphe_. A docudrama based on the author's own experiences in the Internet's text-based virtualworlds, _Subject: emotions encoded_ considers the complexity of human relationship through the wires, from the exciting initial encounters to the conflicts that inevitably arise between physical and virtual reality."
    
    
  • Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky*
  • You’ve Got Mail