Philip Sherman Mygatt

A Stranger to Love Philip Sherman Mygatt

The Internet can sometimes be a fickle mistress often taking more than it gives in return, but sometimes a person's need to feel connected can overwhelm their need to be cautious. Until the arrival of instantaneous connections, meeting new people often tended to be leisurely, happening at a much slower pace, and in much different settings, but now those connections seem to be frantic, random and fast-paced. In today's world, we often know what a person is eating for breakfast even before the cereal bowl is in the sink. Facebook, Twitter, phone-texting all seem to fulfill a person's need to connect, to include others in their daily lives, let the world know who they are, what they are doing, and what they are thinking. The Internet is a great equalizer; a medium where people can hide behind their words, a place where words, not beauty, wealth, social standing or body-strength, have power. Who is hiding behind those words? Is that person who they really say they are, or are they making an attempt to be someone they truly aren't? Do we know who our children, our spouses or our friends are really communicating with? It has always amazed me how willing people seem to be to open up to total strangers and reveal their innermost feelings to people they haven't even met except through social media. Some may argue social media is just a natural progression of mankind's need to band together, a global village, of sorts, while others argue that, unlike a village where everybody is connected in one way or another, today's social media is an isolator, one that encourages impersonal one-on-one connections that often exclude, rather than include. This story is about such a connection between two people who have connected through social media, quite by accident, and their journey as they discover each other, or who they think each other is. Unlike a marriage where two people are forced to deal with everyday problems and situations, a social media relationship can be carefully crafted, its pace carefully controlled, and its outcome often predictable far in advance. Come join Robert, Abby, Betsy, Edward and Vicki on their journeys to find happiness, contentment and love in the Internet fantasy world.