Antonella Baccaro (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
ANDthe love at first sight? Periodically the theme appears in sentimental conversations and, listen, it resists the passage of time. It’s as if we admitted that everything ages except our heart, which is still willing to fibrillate at first glance.
Actually this kind of phenomenon it was once limited to adolescence or, at most, early youth. While it was considered unachievable with maturity and the acquisition of those awarenesses about human nature that make everything appear obvious to us.
Why, then, after the “anta” did we go back to reconsider love at first sight? The simplest answer is that the ad libitum prolongation of adolescence in adults has brought with it all the sentimental phenomenology typical of that season.
But that’s too simplistic an answer, because the dynamic of love at first sight is not based on will but on complete trust. And if this is true, after a certain age this is precisely what is missing, with a prejudiced and self-protective attitude generally prevailing in relationships.
So what has changed to allow us to daydream again? What has changed is the “place” in which our emotions light up at first sight. That place today is social media which provides a human catalog within reach of likes and the possibility of getting in touch with them.
As the “like” placed under the stranger’s photo today is a much simpler gesture than it once would have been to smile at him at a party or stare at him at the bar counter. The dynamic of “seen, taken” is lightning-fast and plays precisely on the ease of the gesture and the limited nature of the consequences. A “counterlike” sweeps away shyness and allows us to take the path of idyll more easily than a real encounter in which the person appears to us for who he or she is.
However, there is a price to pay. Often these contacts end quickly. Few manage to open a conversation and very few get a meeting. Disappearing is the most practiced sport. And so we go on, leafing through the catalog of possibilities in search of a daily thrill. Still better than nothing.
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