Reflective Post for Week of 4/23

Last week in class we watched a movie that I really like, You’ve Got Mail. I was pretty excited to actually watch a good movie for a class! It got me to think about this movie from a new angle and to analyze it more in-depth than I have the other times I’ve just watched it for fun. The area that I’m going to focus on in this blog entry is whether Kathleen and Joe were cheating on their partners while communicating via CMC. It’s not a clear yes or no answer; there is evidence both for and against this assertion.

The first time infidelity is mentioned is when Christina, Kathleen’s friend and coworker at The Shop Around the Corner, brings it up. She says that cybersex is infidelity, and that it is not a good idea. During their entire friendship over the internet, Joe and Kathleen refuse to talk about any personal or specific information…could this possibly be because they feel that discussing personal matters would be cheating? When Joe asks if Kathleen thinks they should meet, she can’t seem to fathom the idea and closes the computer instantly. If they feel guilty talking about personal matters, surely they would view actually meeting as cheating.

When they finally agree to meet, Joe brings a friend along and asks him to look through the window to check her out first. So even if they were cheating, at least they were being safe about it! In the end, it’s hard to make a definite call as to whether Joe and Kathleen were cheating on their partners. Although they didn’t actually have cybersex, they definitely flirted online a few times. And although they never actually met—when each knew who the other was—until they had broken up with their other partners, they were obviously feeling guilty beforehand…and it’s widely known that if you’re doing something that you feel too guilty about to tell your partner, it’s a form of cheating…but it’s still a cute movie, even if they were cheating 