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