Welcome to the world of online dating. A fairly new and controversial concept widely utilized among young Americans. Sites such as OkCupid, Match.com and Plenty Of Fish have been recently taking over the dating world. These sites make it simple for users to find others with common likes and interests or those they are just physically attracted to. Basically you sign up, and begin shopping for your soul mate. It’s that easy. Or is it?
While many are skeptical of this fresh new form of dating, others find it itriguing. Addicting even. The ability to be percieved as whoever you want to be and meet whoever you wish to meet can be an exciting venture. But is it healthy? Or is such an idea detrimental to our human nature. Does it impact our ability to interact in real life with potential partners? To argue on the side of technology, the number of successful real life love matches from online dating sites are, in fact, growing at a rapid pace. This statistic proves internet love searching not such a bad idea after all. Whether you are a workaholic, bored with your usual routine or just socially awkward, the internet now makes it possible for anyone to discover love.
So yes you caught me. I have taken part in the search for online love. Mostly out of boredom, yet there was another part of me curious as to who I might meet once all barriers were broken. I mean, the possibilities are endless! Once signed up, I noticed right away how users try to make themselves as desirable as possible, as if they were in a competition. Maybe they were? Then there was me. A young, successful, and attractive female. You can only imagine all of the hopeful messages I immediately received. Most of which were rejected. Only few men were lucky enough to meet me in person and most ended up being utterly depressing. Not at all what they had portrayed themselves to be over the web.
These encounters made me wonder if I was the only person whose profile gave an honest definition of themselves. Some men I met up with were at least a foot shorter or 50 pounds heavier than they had claimed to be. Another whose voice sounded like that of a middle school girl. Did they think I wouldn’t notice? Or had they been hoping I would have something secretly wrong with me too? The unfortunate thing is that at that point when you meet in person you are then virtually obligated to hang out with them……and then never contact or return their messages EVER again.
I have heard other stories similar to my experiences, and also stories from those who actually did find a good match through the internet. Being an optimist, I decided to take another chance. Convinced that if it worked for them, it could work for me too. Plus I had nothing to lose and found online dating sites to be quite the time killer while at work or when I was bored at home. Then after a couple months I finally did meet someone normal. I am now fortunate enough to say that my online love story is indeed one with a happy ending.
Online dating in my opinion can not be classified as good or bad, safe or unsafe. There are always going to be people that lie, cheat and who are not really who they say they are. This is the same in real life. You don’t want to forget though that there is always that chance that the person you have been chatting with might be your soul mate or someone you will at least form a close friendship with. Just like in the real dating world, its all about taking chances and having faith. If you haven’t already I suggest you take that chance and open your mind and heart to the world of online dating. You never know who you might find
Online Dating Tips<3
1. Read all of their stats. Pictures are easily misleading.
2. Trade facebooks. You can tell how credible of a person they are by the networks they belong to and people they know.
3. Never meet at their house. This means they either have no money to take you out or are a pervert.
4. Pay attention to the length of their profile. People who have thorough profiles show that they are serious about finding someone and hence a better candidate for a serious relationship.
5. Spelling and grammatical errors. Let’s face it. Not all of us are geniuses but there has to be some telling point. “Sup baby” “Hay cutie” = No message back.



