Chatting for Dollars

First posted 00:03am (Mla time) June 02, 2005 By Cheryl R. Chua Inquirer News Service

Editor’s Note: Published on page A11 of the June 02, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

PEOPLE who join a chatroom look for friendship, love or money — or all of the three.

When I was in college, I chatted to gain more friends, usually students of the university where I went, with whom I seemed to relate more easily in chat rooms than in any part of the campus. I often wondered why it was so much easier to be a “friend” online than face to face. It seemed uncomplicated to reveal who you were while hiding behind an assumed nickname that was supposed to describe a part of you in six letters or more.

After college, I made a conscious effort not to chat, thinking there were better things to do than meet “friends” online whom I may never even see. But recently, I have been chatting heavily, even staying up late at times. My interest in foreign languages gives me a valid reason to spend my free time online, teaching English to my Korean teacher/student while he teaches me his own language.

Since January, I have spent most of my weekends and a good part of my salary in Internet cafés, glued in front of a computer monitor. Which isn’t a waste of time or money because now I can read Korean characters after barely one month of taking lessons. I must warn you, though, that I read Hankookmal like a kindergarten pupil reads the English alphabet, which is very slowly and sometimes wrongly.

My frequent visits to Internet cafés have made me realize how pragmatic life has become in our country. It has opened my eyes to a new opportunity for women to earn dollars without having to go abroad. Imagine earning $100 dollars in just one sitting — or chatting.

I often see women waiting patiently in a queue for a computer to be vacated. It’s interesting to hear their stories about their foreign chat mates and compare items they have received from their so-called boyfriends. Even more interesting and embarrassing to me is the fact that some of them actually make a living out of chatting.

There are actually women who deliberately look for online “boyfriends” with the intention of asking for financial support later. Once they hook up with a foreign boyfriend, they feign financial problems and subtly ask for money. Some women employ all of their charms to get dollars, while others tell tales about serious financial troubles to get their boyfriends to send monetary help. I have heard one experienced chatter boasting that she was doing this thing not just to a single online boyfriend but to as many as five at a time! As soon as she was done with one, she would quickly sign in again using another nickname and chat.

Some more experienced chatters say that if you get lucky even with just one foreign boyfriend, you could end up being rich real easy or you could have the chance to live in some foreign country, after getting married.

Don’t get me wrong. I have heard about women who married foreigners they had met online or otherwise, but what about women who chat to ask for money? Let’s face it, this is a new preoccupation and it is spreading rapidly. 

I am not in a position to make any judgment as to whether what these women are doing is illegal or immoral. But I cannot help but think that somewhere something is lost. The love that normally connects and unites two souls is now being replaced by financial transaction. It’s not anymore a question of liking the person but liking what the person has to offer.

Survival or vanity breaks not just the language barrier but love. Of course, feelings can develop as they say. But whether or not love grows, the fact remains that the relationship started on practical considerations. Life in our country must be hard, indeed.

Some women do not even establish real relationships. For them, it’s just flirting and/or extorting. They change partners like they were taking part in some kind of race. Perhaps, they are — but in a race to a “better” future.

You want to earn dollars? Just log on to a chat room, find foreign faces that look friendly (or horny) enough to part with some of his money, and presto, you have an instant financial provider at your beck and call.

Cheryl R. Chua, 24, works in a USAID-funded project that provides technical assistance to cooperatives in Mindanao and the Visayas.