Online Dating

Pardon last night's Game of Thrones-induced insomnia for the lack of a brilliant, witty title today.

My school's Sociology department does lunchtime discussions in the back corner of the cafeteria over Friday's noon meal. As I've recently switched majors to a Social Science degree, and today's topic of choice interested me, I felt it would be informative to go to this lunchtime discussion.

Three guesses as to what the topic was today. And the first two don't count.

I can see where both supporters and condemners of online dating draw their facts from. Having seen several people (including my grandmother. I jest not.) find happy, meaningful relationships with significant others whom they've met online, I can see how this trend has become very popular recently. Sites such as eHarmony, match.com and plentyoffish.com exist for the purpose of bringing people together, who otherwise would never have met. Even for non-dating purposes, online relationships can have their value. Quite a few of my best friends, I've only ever met online through fanfiction and roleplaying forums.

Yet everything has a dark side, and online relationships are no exception. In fact, their dark side may be more prominent than others.

Stalkers creep on these websites frequently, looking for unsuspecting women (or men) to prey on. Honesty in conversations (which are usually limited to instant messaging or emailing) can rarely be trusted. Not to mention the pressure of being in that relationship for purely dating or marriage purposes, instead of having a friendship base. I'll not go into the websites or phone lines intended purely for hooking people up for sex, as that will keep me going for hours.

My personal views on online dating are mixed. As a nerd who spends more time than she will admit in cyberspace (Admittedly, making artistic forum posts and writing fanfiction, not scoping out men), I believe that online relationships, whether romantic or platonic, can be good and happy as long as both parties are careful with what they say.

Yet I don't put very much weight in online relationships designed for romance. To my thinking, that's reserved for the desperate or the semi-anti-social.

... Maybe that is for me, then. I will admit that I have made an eHarmony account- although that was a spoof, done with my dormmates from last year to see what kinds of matches we'd come up with, and then laugh at the site before deleting our accounts. I think I had five or so matches, most of whom lived in the States, and none of whom I bothered to glance at beyond their profile pictures and names. If I do get lucky and start dating, I would much rather have that come about with a boy I already know in real life, instead of being connected through the admins behind a dating site.

What are your thoughts on online dating?