For my first attempt at a podcast, I thought I would start with a topic that I truly want to know more about: relationships. Specifically, what distinguishes romantic and platonic relationships when you discount sexual attraction. So often people conflate romantic feelings with sexual ones, but certain people may experience romantic love but not sexual attraction and others are comfortable keeping things strictly sexual.
Just as romantic and sexual feelings are different, so too are romantic and platonic feelings. Trying to explain how they are different, however, has always proved difficult to me. So I asked students at Saddleback College for their input into this conundrum of mine (as well as a friend’s 9-year-old son).
Connection was the word on everyone’s lips. People also mentioned responsibility and commitment as being a major component found in romantic relationships, but not platonic ones. But, as one student, D.J., pointed out, we don’t know if this is societal pressure or human nature.
In any case, people do seem to differentiate between the two different kinds of relationships. Whether that is an arbitrary decision or not remains to be seen.
Audio Experiments 