A Dying Girlfriend Hoax

January 17, 2012

I cannot be the only one…who gets a chill of apprehension from the future of my son’s dating life when I read the headlines about Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o and his hot hoax of a girlfriend. I fear that my son, with the same silly genes that caused my husband to make horrible love struck decisions in his past, will someday humiliate himself similarly as Te’o, who is being raked through the mud over this "girl".

Manti Te’o “met”his love interest via the internet, like so many of you readers out there may have experienced, but how most people who are enthralled with another person they met online take their relationship to the next level of meeting in person, Te’o and his maiden never actually had a face to face meet. I started to question why this young man's embarrassment is headline news and then I read that antidotes from Te’o and mystery Internet diva’s relationship were being played up in sports media outlets.  The kicker of the story is that the girl supposedly passed away in the heat of their romance creating a beautiful tragedy with Te'o in the role of good ole Romeo.  The very public question now is if this young lady who ensnared Te’o through fabulous online and phone chats was actually ever who she claimed to be or did someone just play this linebacker for a fool, or if he in fact was in cahoots with this enigma of a person.

Oh boy.  I remember the young boys of adolescence and my early twenties that fell for the typical love spell of a pearly white smile and the feminine mystique, or manipulation, of certain young ladies.  I would be left wondering how the boys I called friends couldn’t see past girly charms and always chalked it up to testosterone, although in my friends’ defense at least they had in person chemistry to contend with as well.  This story of Te’o gives me misgivings about my son’s future love life, I am sure that all relationships in the future with have some sort of online presence, I only hope that when I meet my son’s first girlfriend it is at my home and not through a status update on his Facebook page.  I will take extra precautions to teach my son that a healthy relationship also includes eye contact, and Skype doesn't count as actual eye contact, and that what people write about them selves online is not always the truth. As though it is not hard enough to protect our children from online predators but now we must be weary of people who are simply out to make them look stupid, I thought our kids were handling that part all on their own…I cannot be the only one who shuddered for their son’s ability to make good choices when it comes to prospective relationships when they read this story…can I?