THE Internet is fast changing the way we find love in Uganda, totally redefining conventional and traditional ways of dating. If you are the busy type, love could only be a computer click away this Valentine’s Day
THE Internet is fast changing the way we find love in Uganda, totally redefining conventional and traditional ways of dating. If you are the busy type, love could only be a computer click away this Valentine’s Day. Simon Ocen examines the new phenomenon of finding love on the Internet.
Much as we all have to work, we also need time off for leisure. This valentine, if you find yourself hanging out alone in want of company, simply log on to the Internet, click on google search and type in chat room and then you will find a myriad of equally interesting people to chat with.
The vast class of chat rooms include; student chat rooms, business chat rooms, teenage chat rooms, adult chat rooms, christian chat rooms, politics chat rooms and sports chat rooms and the most sought after is the singles chat room.
Chat rooms are the Internet’s third most used application behind e-mail and the web, with over ten million people chatting daily.
With singles chat rooms you could find yourself a partner. Enter the chat room and draw out your best lines. But with the chat room, the rule is never give up until you get what you want.
Chat rooms are good confidence boosters and an alternative to having your name, e-mail and phone number They are private as you pick your username. You will meet people from different tribes; some you will make friends with, others dislike and one or more you get infatuated with.
Once you meet this person you are infatuated with, one thing leads to another.
If you are so much into each other; at this point the forces of traditional old fashioned dating set in, you get to exchange e-mails and later possibly pictures.
If you both like what you see, then you can exchange phone numbers: at this point you start serious dating. I sampled a few chat rooms which include; Friend Finder. Com, Community Person.Com and many others.
Singles chat rooms are extremely addictive once you get hooked, it is like nicotine to a smoker. When I logged onto Friend Finder.Com and two other chat rooms for one week at random times of the day; I discovered that the same user names appeared in the chat rooms about 80% of the time.
These users could easily identify a new user since they are one big family divided into cliques. For them to let you into their inner circle, you have to either use a female user name or a male, with a catch user name say “mazongotoâ€.
The users in Find a Friend.com are always warm to new users, shun any user of profane language and are resident in Uganda.
That is not to mention the deception that goes in there. A friend swears he will never dare log into a chat room again; he bitterly asserts that this girl made him a believer she had the most exquisite features and got him racking his brains out; he visualised a picture of American R&B star Beyonce or model Tyra Banks after bowing to her endless doses of reassurances.
However, upon meeting her, she looked like Martin Lawrence playing big mama in ‘Big Mama’s House’. This revelation sent me laughing to stitches like a horde of excited hyenas.
But, like anything else in life, chat rooms have their shortcomings. Most chat rooms are not moderated so profane language is used.
They are a source of pedophiles who disguise themselves as children, lure children to meet them and often sexually abuse them.
Chat rooms in general, are fun, interactive and sociablebut the singles one’s are not for the faint hearted.