Understanding the Social Risks of Online Dating
By: Claire Brent
Millions of people meet their matches online each year. In fact, online dating has become so popular in the past five years that there has been a large influx in the number of online dating Web sites, forums and chat rooms. In general, people look online for love for a variety of reasons, including ease, abundance of singles and connectivity.
Online dating once had a stigma to it. It was believed that if someone had to look online for a date, that he or she simply had social skills that were lacking or that he or she had something to hide. In reality, online dating is incredibly popular these days because it has become so easy. Many online dating sites also tout the benefits of usage by using success rates of happy marriages that were born from connections on their sites.
If you are considering online dating in your future, it is important that you recognize some of the social stigmas that may (or may not) actually exist.
For one, while many very happy and successful people turn to the Internet to help them find true love, people who have not met online may have an opinion that online dating is for people who lack adequate social skills. If you feel that you lack social skills and, therefore, need the Internet to join you with a partner, then by all means, experiment. You may even be pleasantly surprised to find that there are many other people your age who share interests and successes. In fact, you may even run into a few people that you know offline.
Additionally, when looking for love online, keep in mind that you may have to admit to all of your future boyfriends or girlfriends that your ex is someone that you met online. Your newest love may ask you why you were dating someone online. “Desperate” is often a term that comes to mind for many people when others learn of their online relationships. No matter what your opinion on online dating is, you will have to be comfortable and confident with telling people that you met your significant other (or maybe even spouse) through the use of the Internet.
As if being called “desperate” isn’t enough for your reputation, dating online has yet another negative stigma to it. Whether it’s true or not is up for debate in many social circles, but there is a large segment of the population that still believes that online dating is for people who are looking for fast and fancy hook-ups; not for lasting love. Therefore, you may have to contend with people who contact you online looking for the fast hook-up. Be firm with them unless you do want the hook-up. Also, keep in mind that people that you then meet offline may also believe that you were online looking for that quick encounter.
When dating online, you must be sure of yourself and confident with your decisions. Dating online is a wonderful way to be introduced to a large number of people in a short amount of time. However, there are several social stigmas that are associated with the medium. In order to move beyond those stigmas, it may take some hard work convincing your friends and family that your online relationship is legitimate. Nevertheless, if at first you don’t succeed online try, try again anyway! You just might find love at the end of all of your efforts.
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