Facebook, Twitter and other mass forms of social media provide us with personal updates from people we may never even speak to. We find out that Mary just got a new cat and that Bobby bough a new shirt today but may only have briefly encounterd them afew times five years ago. Whether we realize it or not, we are interested in them enough to take the time to read their status. We unintentionally form a personal bond with someone who may not even know we’re still on their friends list.
Forming bonds and relationships via the internet is so prevalent in today’s society that it seems online dating is taking the world by storm. Social media as a whole has given us the courage to not only read other peoples daily information, but update sites with our own. Though only a handful may care that you wnet to the beach yesterday, it still seems worthy of posting. We comfortably take risks of seeking results from our expressive online nature. With even more spontaneity, online daters are able to be who they want to be, no questions asked. Like shopping in a grocery store, you are then able to pick and choose what person is best for you. It leaves the “what if’s” and “some day’s”‘out of the picture. You search in a manner of here and now. Take it or leave it all depends on personal preference. Making an online profile expressing interests is easy, but is joining a dating site taking the easy way out?
You meet, you talk, you fall in love. Not only is it the dance of dating, its the ritual that builds all relationships. However seeing, talking and falling in love is now completly available virtually. Online dating has forever changed the way we are able to form relationships. Just because you see a picture instead of a live individual and communicate via text instead of vocally, the path to love is still laid out in the same manner. Just as all ages of hopefuls search for love in person, the internet not only narrows the selection down but searches in the same manner. Some profile makers are fortunate enough to stay on that path while others don’t quite find what they’re looking for.
Many argue that meeting contenders online doesn’t form the same emotional connection that in person connections do. You may even meet Ted Doe, the love of your life. You find from his profile that he has a dog, steady job, and a nice car but its not until two years down the road that you run into his wife and five kids at the market. Online connections are a game of risk, but isn’t that always how the game of love is played?