A little cybersex (or - I'll have what she's having)

Just finished reading this...

Still trying to form some opinions because it's still fresh in my head. But it was really funny right off the bat. Then I began to find it cliche; but now I realise it was brilliant and Mr. Allen seemed to really nail the 'feeling' of what this sort of journey involves. The darker side of relationship, desperation, looking for some 'fun' but not having to pay the price - and yet ultimately the characters do pay.

I want to read things like this not just for the insight provided but to perhaps help in research (because one of these days, by golly, I AM going to write the Great American Novella *wink*)- so in some ways books like this are reseach. A microscope on the 'dating game' when it comes to things like on-line sex/chat rooms and on-line flirtation. I'd like to say that we've come a lot farther than the people depicted in this story - but first of all what the HELL does THAT mean? I mean what? Farther down the slippery slope of degredation? Frankly though (and pathetically I might add), I think little has changed in the world of cyber/psuedo-sexual encounters.

A lot of the dialogue was pretty funny and sharp - but the feeling that I was left with was again that overwhelming sorrow for what's become of our society and the needs that seem to revolve around such a cold frontier. The huge losses to our own interpersonal abilities; and, I have to wonder - would this shit be happening without that great 'Super Highway' we call the Internet? Or did the Internet cause a lot of this to happen...

Any thoughts?? You know they are always appreciated. Anyone out there want to share their own personal insight into the dark, circuit/intel processor-filled, in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-scream world of cyber-dating and sex?

Just a little gauntlet to keep you thinking

^_^