Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2000)
Internet continued from page 8B “At first I thought it was kind of weird,” he concedes, [but then] “I got into it and thought it was pretty fun. ” He met Taufik through a service called ICQ, which allows Internet users to random ly send messages to people that fit a certain profile. She sent him a message because all her friends were away for the summer and she was bored, he says. As far as he knows, he is the first person she has met on-line. The computer has even remained a vital part of their relationship, Lilleboe says. “Because Anna is kind of shy, she uses the Internet to get things off her chest that she would otherwise have a hard time say ing aloud,” he explains. Originally from Indonesia, Taufik comes from a sheltered background that puts women second to men. Even though she has lived in the United States for five years now and Lilleboe tells her he doesn’t be lieve in those types of gender roles, “e-mail is still sometimes an easier way for her to open up to me,” Lilleboe says. From his personal experiences and those of his mother, Lilleboe now thinks success stories have to do with the comfortable at mosphere developed when neither party has to worry about impressing someone else in person. Rogers agrees that the Internet can some times provide a safe environment to meet people, especially for men and women who are new to dating. On-line interactions pro vide a venue for practicing the common dating rituals, she says. “Part of what this trend says to me,” Met zger charges, “is that though there are ad vantages, there a lot more people with a whole lot of insecurities.” There may be more dire ways to get a date, however. Those that use the Internet as a courting service view it as a less lamen table form than other types of “personals.”• “Internet is so easy,” Vial says. “It does n’t smack of desperation nearly as much as taking the time to put an ad in the newspa per. You can post ten Internet personals in a half hour if you feel like it... It’s more so cially acceptable.” Lilleboe agrees with his friend. “To me, [newspaper personals] seem like getting too desperate,” he says. “I see it as the last resort.” If the amount of effort exerted is the biggest factor in gauging how forlorn one is, Metzger says it’s also indicative of the un favorable drift society is taking. With such an influx of people who are un willing to put more than thirty minutes into the start of something that could be life-chang ing, “I sense they just want a microwave-pop corn relationship,” Metzger says. One other aspect about Internet usage is an obvious question: How many people use the technology just to find sexual partners? Lilleboe says his best guess on the num ber of participants who just sought sex on the Web sites he stopped visiting just sev en months ago is around 40 percent. He mainly used the personals section on the search engine Excite. That one, he says, is one of the few that forbids the inclusion of nude photos with profiles. But there are many more with no such prohibitions. Surfing sites such as adultfinder.com, classifieds2000.com and swoon.com, one could estimate that ap proximately 70 percent of the ads solely seek sex. “When I was doing it, finding any nude pictures was a rarity,” Lilleboe says. “I saw a lot of horny housewife ads, but that’s about it.” Econo Phone Cards Lowest Kates Around the World. Pre-Paid Rechargeable Phone Cards, Australia....7$/min Beijing/Shanghai.144/min Chile.12$/min Japan..7$/min New Zealand.7$/min Netherlands.7<P/min U.K.5$/min U.S.A.4<t/min Free $5 card with first order over $20. «rt™ngr^fl'flO RO. Pox 360 Umatilla, Oregon 1 "U / Z"OZZ“D «9B iSecref&arcfen A Bed & Breakfast Inn Ten delightful garden-theme rooms await you. 1910 University Street, Eugene, Oregon 97403 541-484-6755 • fax: 541-431-1699 • 1-888-484-6755 Toll free www. secretgarden bbinn .com Recycle • Recycle • Recycle • Recycle "'ait-soo ^Oclr " any one Coupon good through WE'VE MOVED Bigger location next to the Bijou 44A F. 13th • 343-3225 ODE Online: www.dailyemerald.com
