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Sure, queries about anthrax and Osama might have bumped sex off the top of search engines’ most requested words post-9/11, but the Net remains the prime repository for sex and sex-related material.In these days of financial turbulence, the only dot-coms guaranteed a steady income are porn sites, and even if you’re not looking for it, sex can pop up on your desktop by accident.
Miss a letter in someone’s Web address and, chances are, you’ll end up with a few Hot Sex Teen Poodle windows open on your browser that would make Andre Williams blush and will reopen quicker than you can close them.
High-speed Internet access has only made things more accessible. Music might be the most downloaded thing on the Net, but close behind it are explicit photos and videos, transferred to your desktop at a blinding pace after the obligatory credit card debit.
The hard-drive-destroying viruses that tend to accompany such video clips are free.
It isn’t all bad. The connectivity the Net brings can also act as a positive influence, especially when it plugs kids with questions into people who can answer them via advice-friendly sites like http://teenadvice.studentcenter.org and the message boards of magazines like Bust (www.bust.com).
That’s the sex part covered. So where’s the love?
As text messaging and the five-word e-mail have shown, one thing the Internet’s done well is bring people together. Communication’s easier now than ever before, in part because it’s faceless and less personal. Don’t have the nerve to deal with someone face to face or even on the phone? Bang out an appropriately abrupt e-mail.
On the surface at least, that’s the premise of Internet dating sites like the wildly popular Lavalife (www.lavalife.com). The site successfully removes the personal from the dating equation, making it as easy as, say, shopping for veggies on Grocery Gateway.
It’s less sleazy than chat rooms and offers an anonymity that can’t be had in real life. You control the information about you that’s given out: e-mail address, photo, personal contact information and whether you’re even logged onto the site.
If you’re not particularly satisfied with your name, face or current profession, you could always create a new personality, make up your own job title and post a picture of Gordie Howe instead of your own mug.
You can show interest in someone by either sending them a smile — kind of like winking across a room — or chatting in real time. Either way, it’s less stressful than risking public humiliation by ambushing someone in a loud bar.
There are dozens of different online dating sites, ranging from J Match (www.jmatch.com), a Jewish matchmaking outfit, to the more mystical Love Garden (www.lovegarden.com). None of them exactly compensates for personal interaction in real life, but what in the online world does?mattg@nowtoronto.com
