Have you ever wondered when will you find a romantic partner? Are you willing to try online dating? Some may consider it a desperate move, but the truth is, in hope to find love, it has become definitely attractive nowadays. We have to consider that we now live in a digital era; it is not a surprise that this has also reached romantic relationships. The wide range of eligible partners is one of the reasons why this new way to meet people and date is appealing to some.
Online dating is very simple; there are many sites in order to do so, such as eHarmony, match.com, Lovestruck.com, DatingDirect.com, PlentyofFish.com, among others. Some of them are free, some are not. In most of them it is required to create a profile, submit personal information, and then start looking for people you may be interested in or receiving invitations from other people, and then start dating via Internet. Sooner or later you will both decide whether you would like to meet face to face, which let’s be honest it is what most of us hope when we meet someone. The other option is to keep dating the same way, for several reasons like not living in the same city, or simply because you don’t want to.
Online dating is very simple; there are many sites in order to do so, such as eHarmony, match.com, Lovestruck.com, DatingDirect.com, PlentyofFish.com, among others.
That’s just the happy part of the story, one can say the fairytale. But, there are several dangers you take when online dating. In this article, we are going to develop those risks, but first, let’s consider the benefits of this type of dating:
- As mentioned before, there is a wide spectrum of people in these web sites, so you have access to a long list of potential candidates.
- Some of these sites offer personality testing and matching to make sure the users find like-minded possible partners.
- Some may consider these sites offer the possibility to safely and conveniently interact with other people. Later, we will see this is not entirely true.
- As you are accessing to an online dating site, you are looking for potential partners to date and start a relationship with. Hence, you are supposed to find people that are logged in for the same reasons as you are.
- Online dating is a good option for those who are introverted, because somehow they will interact better with someone else via internet, since they won’t feel the pressure of having to see each other face to face.
Online dating implicates several risks you may want to consider before trying it.
We have already seen the good side of the story, but what about the bad one? The following are some of the risks you take while online dating:
- First of all, consider that you don’t know who you are talking to. You are making the decision to meet certain person based on their profile, and remember that everyone can lie in the internet. It is the easiest thing to do, write some words that someone else may consider cute or likeable.
- Related to the previous one is the risk of being cat fished. Again, someone can create a false profile, with false pictures in order to attract more people. For more on this you can watch the MTV show called Catfish.
- You may not know it but the data you provide on the Internet is permanent. This happens even with Facebook, where if you delete your account, somehow the information stays there in a database. If you take this into consideration, then you must know that if you send compromising pictures of yourself, they will stay stored in the net, so there’s no confidentiality, at all.
- You can also be a victim of scams. There are several malicious people on the Internet, and they act in different ways. In the particular case of online dating, they create a profile, pretend to be someone with an overseas job, find a suitable victim and they will try to start gaining their trust. This process may take months, but once they do gain their trust, something bad will “happen” to them, therefore, they will ask for money in order to “solve” the problem. As soon as you give them the money, they will disappear.
- As it was stated before, when you start using one of these sites to find a potential lover, you don’t actually know who you are talking to. In fact, you may be dating a psychopath, a stalker, a sexual predator, and you probably don’t even notice, because they are experts. Online sites are very appealing to this kind of people.
- You can also be a victim of blackmails, defamation or damage of your reputation. Consider this before sending pictures of yourself that can be later used against you.
If you are willing to try this method, then, consider the following advices:
- Be careful when sending compromising pictures. If you are determine to do so, then try to avoid picturing your face. Remember there is no confidentiality on the Internet.
- Read carefully the terms of service and privacy policy of the online dating site.
- Listen to yourself and your instinct. If you get suspicious about someone then trust yourself.
- Consider reputable sites only.
- Protect your personal information.
- Be honest and take it slow.
Read also: Internet Crimes: Am I Safe?
It is quite possible that you know of one story about a couple who met online. Online dating gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of people, but not necessarily potential partners, though. It is difficult to get to know someone only through these sites, some of us prefer the traditional way, where you can actually get information that only comes from the interaction between two people, for example, determine whether you have chemistry or not, if you get along, what are their hopes and dreams, or just to try to peel the onion date by date. Furthermore, remember that online dating carries several risks you may want to consider, take into consideration our previous recommendations if you’re bold enough to try this way of dating.
