technoculture203-09

I though Mondays lecture about intimacy online was both interesting and very though provoking in the way of looking at the different points of view about online intimacy. I found this article online http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/11/14/couple-to-split-after-husband-cheats-on-wife-in-second-life-86908-20893532/ where a woman left her husband who was having sex with someone else on 2nd life. I found it interesting that their relationship started, progressed and ended through technology. They met in a chat room, spent most of their marriage on 2nd life and then it ended as one was unfaithful on it. It made me wonder, if technology hadn’t had such a presence all the way through their relationship, would she have found her husband’s ‘cheating’ serious enough to opt for divorce? The article states that the couple spent most of their marriage on 2nd life and now after their divorce, have both now found new relationships and love online through other online games. This relates back to what Luke was saying in the lecture about ‘intimacy at a distance’ and ‘proximity without intimacy’. They both now have intimacy at a distance by engaging in sex and relationships online, the ex husband even being engaged to someone he met online, but has not met in real life. During their marriage, the couple were close in proximity but had little intimacy as they spent their time on 2nd life and one was unfaithful.