Why Haven’t I Met the Right One?
By: Rob Rawlings
Everybody wants to find a soulmate, but not everyone has the time and energy to sift through all potential matches. The internet gives each of us a new option in online dating, and its growth has exploded in recent years. Now, everyone from CEO’s to your local cable guy has a profile on one of the many online dating sites the internet has to offer.
The internet is revolutionizing another area of our lives. Email made it faster to send out personal messages ten years ago, and online dating is doing the same thing for singles everywhere. It takes only a few seconds to view someones profile and see what they are about. Kelly Totten, a recent graduate of WVU, remarked that “it is just so much easier to find someone with the same likes and dislikes as yourself. You can read hundreds of profiles in the same amount of time you would waste on some random drunk at the bar, and its cheaper.” Many people just like Kelly have realized its benefits, and more are soon to come.
Matchmaking websites have started to replace nightclubs and singles groups because of their incredible efficiency. Many people privately dislike the club scene because it tenders to one night stands and poor drunk decisions. “Its hard to build depth when you meet someone at a bar. If you don’t sleep with them then they will just move onto someone that will,” said Melissa Connor, a speech pathologist in Morgantown. In contrast to the club scene, singles dating sites offer each person the chance to really get to know the other person before any face to face encounter. One can be sure that the other person is in it for the same reasons because sex is a physical impossibility.
Some people worry about the safety of online dating services because of fear mongering news stations. I told my friends about my participation in online dating, and she told me I was going to get raped and killed. Luckily, that is not the case. The major dating services all do thorough criminal background checks, and some even search through government records to make sure people aren’t married. They also take precautions to make sure pictures are representative of what each person looks like in real life. Safety is only an issue to those who haven’t joined.
So far my experiences have been wonderful, and I believe they will continue to be. For those of us who are tired of the same old people at the same old bars there really is no better solution. In the future I predict that online dating will continue to grow, and that our generation will reap the benefits of innovation. Who knows… Maybe the divorce rate will actually drop.
For more information about online dating services check out the dating services review at the Consumer Watch.
Robert Rawlings is an accomplished writer, programmer, and artist. In 2006 he left school to pursue a career in programming despite majoring in political science. Thus far he has been successful, and the future is open to possibilities. One day he hopes to own an aquarium store in Florida, but he currently resides in Gaithersburg, MD.