The Contrasting Faces of Online Dating

Love, with a Click.

You’d think that was the title of yet another book or movie that talks about falling in love in the age of the Internet. There have been so many already – Napoleon Dynamite, Must Love Dogs, You’ve Got Mail. These were all based on love in the communication age, with the protagonists falling in love online. Does that mean the end of romance?

Well, though online dating has been the reason for many a successful relationship, it certainly is not the only way a person can find love, even for those who have an otherwise hard time in their personal lives. Online dating of today, is just a technologically savvy version of the personal ads era of the 80’s and 90’s. Because it relies on the faster technology of today, it is a quicker method than those of the yesteryears.

The objective of both online persona profiles and print personal ads remains the same; it’s just that the online option has many more features and advantages. However, at the end of the day, both remain a blind chase for a date. Online dating sites however allow you to keep a track on how many views your profile got, and you can also respond immediately to any messages that your ad generates for you.

Many consider themselves blessed because of the intervention of online dating in their lives, and yet there are several who think that online dating has only increased cyber crime. Of course, it is undeniable that there are many who have used the anonymity the internet offers to carry out their dishonorable activities. There are fake profiles and morphed photographs, and some even provide ‘services’ for money.

There have also been unfortunate incidents of women being trapped into forced sex in return for false promises of better lives and/or marriage. This generally happens when people agree to meet even though they come from different countries. But on the brighter side, there have been people who have met up, and fallen deeply in love, and even gotten married, al because of online dating.

Fake membership details are also a known problem with online dating websites. Posting false profiles to lure potential users is a common tactic employed by owners of online dating sites. This leads users to think that the website has a large member database and thus there will be a wide array of profiles for him or her to look through, whereas the truth is quite bleak.

With this entire host of problems being known, online dating sites are still gaining popularity across the world. Websites offering dating services are springing up everywhere you look, and people are signing p quite blindly, often applying to more than one dating site to increase their chances of finding a date.

The lure of online dating has in its hold even those people for whom the thrill of the chase is as exciting as meeting a complete stranger and finding out what that person is like.

Several proponents of online dating are those people who are extremely shy by nature, and if they didn’t have their computers they would never be able to step out and socialize with anyone, leave alone dating.

Online dating services have already proven their efficiency in helping the development of both long-term and short-term commitments with the large number of success stories that they boast.

In the United States alone, approximately $470 million has been spent in the payment of online dating site registrations. In the paid websites industry, online dating has the largest chunk now.

The number of dating sites online has crossed one thousand, and there s an estimated thirty-five percent rise in that number every year. They also have a dominant role in the share market, which is loomed over by Yahoo, with their Yahoo Personals, Match.com and AmericanSingles.com.

Though most sits seem American, online dating isn’t restricted tp our country alone, with increased memberships seen from the European union as well, and the number of European sites also going up.

With the growth graph for this industry pointing skywards, in a decade from now, it will be no surprise to see most married people credit their relationship to online dating services.

However, unlike the romance seen in movies, not every person you meet off the internet may be that ideal Romeo, or Prince Charming, or even a woman who is waiting to be rescued.

Do not go off to meet your online date in person, until you have taken all the intermediate steps of chatting with web cams and talking on the phone. Take it slow and be sure of the person before you agree to meet face-to-face.

‘Love, with a Click’ might then be the title of a book based on your love story.