Comparative Essay Sample: Conventional Love and Virtual Love

Love can be many things but ultimately it’s always expressed through actions. Love comes from attention, comfortability in another person, and trust. This journey starts when an interest sparks between two people. It can be during a party, an occasional glance at work, crossing the street, friends since young kids, or even through the internet. Even though all these beginnings, end in people falling in love, society has made up labels for love. These labels are conventional love and virtual love. Conventional love is defined as a monogamous, long-term relationship between a man and a woman, based on them falling in love, and committed to through marriage. Virtual love is defined as a web relationship, the connection between individuals who have met on the web, and much of the time know each other just by utilizing the Internet. People can ask themselves which is the best way to find love, is it virtual love or conventional love. In the end, people should know that effort and attention have a significant impact on the love shared in the relationship. It doesn’t matter if people have conventional love or virtual love, the only thing that guarantees that these people will stay together is the time and effort they put into the relationship.

Conventional love means for people a stable relationship because it represents the idea that it will last a long time while virtual love is seen as temporary. Love can be temporary for any relationship, if there’s no effort or the interest seems to fade away then the relationship will fade. Conventional love can seem the better option for a person to want a long-lasting relationship because people look for a “forever” partner. Conventional love also implies that the person has already met the person in real life, so they already know how the other person is and acts. Then they can decide if it seems like a good idea to explore deeper feelings like love. Virtual love can seem challenging and even more challenging if the person doesn't understand how the internet works and how people communicate on it. This type of love is common in the Gen Z generation, they are familiar with the internet because they consume it every day for many hours. This generation is used to making friends online through social media and video games, so it's common if one of these friendships becomes more than that. With this information, it can be said that a relationship can start through a “dm” on social media, a video game, or a dating site. Virtual love can give a person to meet new people with ease, there is no need to meet somewhere or spend money on a date, it's just based on communication and attention. Conventional love seems more appropriate to a person who is not comfortable with the internet and prefers to date someone they already know. It's a matter of which scenario the person feels more comfortable to start a relationship. 

Every relationship has its risks and some more than others. Conventional love has the risk of losing the person you have known for a long time when the relationship ends, because sometimes it is hard to maintain communication after a breakup, and many want to have a clean “cut”. Virtual love can be the better option because if one of the parties wants to end the relationship, they just need to stop communicating with the other person through the internet, but it will seem unfair for the other person because they wouldn't know what they had done wrong to make the other person go away. Virtual love can also be a risk if the two persons want to meet in real life because both of them wouldn't know if they are easy to talk to as on the internet, or even if they feel attracted to each other's physical appearance. Seems like virtual love represents more risk than conventional love. 

As said in the first paragraph a relationship needs time and effort. Without time and effort, the relationship ends. This is very common to happen, there are many cases in which it is common to hear “he doesn’t compliment me like he used to” “she doesn't want to go out on dates like she used to”, “we don't even talk or laugh like we used to”. This happens when the person no longer puts time and effort into their relationship. Everyone wants to be treated right and feel desired, but sometimes this stays at the beginning of the relationship because they are trying to conquer the other person, and once they have them they forget to keep doing the things they did at the beginning of the relationship. People should put more time and effort as the relationship progresses, not just when it begins. It  doesn't matter if a person prefers to have a relationship with someone on the internet or with someone they know, a successful relationship happens with time and effort. If both persons can keep making time and effort, then the relationship is bound to succeed.