This spring Edita and Ruben Gyonjyans got married and they are thankful
for life and the computer which gave them the opportunity to meet each
other. “I was chatting with my brother for a couple of months, but I
did not know how to get acquainted with others,” says Edita. “The first
words written by Ruben attracted my attention immediately. You have to
try to find out who is the person behind all that he or she writes
while chatting, all the sentences and expressions, and then try to
present yourself in your words. It is only then that the words seem to
take shape. You realize that those words describe you and they are not
written anywhere else.”
The new way of communicating that does not take into account time and
space is the internet. There is a virtual space for communicating via
the internet. This communication between two or more people gives
people a chance to change character, age, sex and appearance in virtual
reality. There are no officials, directors or low-class people. All
people are equal and have virtual friends.
Until Internet came into play, back in the 1980s there were local
networks which created “virtual communities”. Today, through Chat
(meaning “to talk too much”) and ICQ (I seek you), people from all over
the world can talk to each other about any topic. For example, ICQ,
which was founded in November of 1996, now has 180 million members in
245 countries around the world. Armenians first started chatting in
1993, however virtual communication, according to vice-president of the
Internet Community Grigor Saghyan, has become popular in the past 5
years. Also, according to Mr. Saghyan, the number of people using the
Internet reaches 50,000 and the number of people using similar services
is the same as the people using the internet. Psychologist David
Hayrapetyan claims that during the virtual communication, the influence
that the word has is the most important. The talker can attract the
other one’s attention only if he or she uses the synonyms of words most
favorable to the other person. “Psychologically, people are much more
relaxed in their imaginations and expressions. This is also the reason
why the two partners wish to see each other after the acquaintance,”
explains the psychologist. “Often, they exchange photos. From a
psychological point of view, it is difficult for one partner to agree
with the other one. Conscientiously, there is a desire to complete the
sentence, see, hear, communicate with, even smell the unique smell of
the other person. For example, Edita and Ruben met after four months of
chatting online but they have not exchanged any photographs. “Edita
used to say that that made things more interesting and I had no problem
with that,” says Ruben. “I sent two photographs but I did not get one
from Edita. She had described herself with little information.”
Narine met with Armen and Karen through Chat and now they are all
friends. “There are people with all kinds of preferences,” says Armen,
“the first words are always the same: hi, how are you, what are you
doing. After reading the answers to those questions, you get a picture
of who you are talking to.” Narine says that at first she had always
wanted to meet boys but she was afraid. “I knew very little about them.
They had sent pictures of themselves, had written that they were close
friends. In any case, it is a little dangerous for a 15 year old
student to go and meet strangers,” says Narine, “however, today I can
say that I have made some great friends.”
Hayrapetyan notes the fact that Internet communication fills in the
other forms of communication. However, the 1-2 hours spent chatting
becomes 5-6 hours. It starts to make an impact on the person’s language
structure, forms of expression, the time in the given internet club.
After this, one slowly isolates himself from society. “The young adult
already talks in the computer language-short words, expressions, unique
word combinations taken from the “other world” which are not understood
by elders. When that yount adult sees that the people around him or her
don’t understand the language being spoken, that person tries harder to
remain in the environment where there are people who do understand that
language-the virtual community,” says the psychologist. In addition, in
the West where there is a longer history of virtual communities, there
are currently new security rules. For example, there is some advice
about going out on a date with stranger from the virtual community. You
must let your close ones know about that and leave the partner’s
telephone number and address.
There are no such problems in Armenia. Vice president of the Internet
Community Grigor Saghyan is not afraid of the fact that there will be a
day when people will have daily conversations with each other through
the Internet There are simply many new services in the world market,
people move from one thing to the other. New opportunities may arise
along with the development of projects. If the e-mails having a textual
significance wasn’t enough, now people are communicating with each
other with a web cam. These kinds of things make the virtual a reality.
M.T.