An Internet love story

There are times when Life imitates art, but there are also times when Art imitates life. I've been working on ideas to write my script and reading articles on the web. I tend to gravitate towards the technological magazines, because the story is set on the Future.

This article 'An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out. ' impressed me a lot because of the elements of Greek tragedy. The protagonist, John is bored with his suburban life. He seems to have it all but obviously there was something missing. There's nothing wrong to try to spice up ones life or to have the urge to aspire to something more or something bigger than our current state of affairs. The problems start when the first step when embarking on such journey, begins with a lie.

Several ideas where triggered after reading the article. The internet provides a way to be in touch with people miles away but with this comes also the anonymity and the possibility of assuming an alter-ego. How do I know, when meeting someone online for the first time that they are who they say they are?.

I'm an eternal optimist and tend to trust people rather quickly. I'm no longer on the dating circles but I can only imagine how scary it could be for the people out there to constantly fight the nagging feeling of doubt when someone looks to-good-to-be-true. On the above story, she provided him with items that supported his perception of interacting with who she said she was. He did too, some of the comments point out that phrases he used were not accurate but something that I've learned and I used on the visual effects is that "it doesn't need to be realistic, it just has to look realistic to convince the audience". All the proofs she provide him with would have been enough for me to believe her... now, that's scary.

Another idea was that for some people is easier to connect with total strangers than with people they could meet face to face. I have a friend who in real life is very quite and very rare he would say something nice to me or to anyone. But when we're chatting online, he is very talkative and expressive. What is it that makes us braver when behind a veil of anonymity? Is it the fact the our interlocutor can't see our face and we can get away with more?

I'm sure someone in Hollywood already has the rights for this and we should be getting this story, or something very close to it in at least the shape of the Movie-of-the-week.