| Online Dating: Shedding the Stigma |
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Online Dating: Shedding the StigmaNot so long ago, a person who devoted a lot of time to nurturing potential romance online would typically be viewed by the rest of us as either desperate or else just too lazy to get out to a bar or other social environment and connect with other singles face-to-face. In just a few short years, though, prevailing attitudes have undergone a dramatic reversal. Nowadays, the traditional approaches to dating seem almost passe when compared to the expedience of browsing the profiles of appealing dates and making overtures via the Internet before even committing to encounters in person. The search for love has often felt like a venture out into the jungle for many of us, but modern technology has at last provided us with a map of the terrain as well as a lot of road signs to assure us that we're heading in the right direction.
Because the World Wide Web has always been intended as a means of breaking down cultural and geographical barriers and bringing people together, the advent of online personals services can be seen as an inevitable and logical by-product of this new medium. As Katherine Kersten recounts in her article, "No shame in seeking love that clicks", more and more singles have been shedding the stigma once attached to seeking love in cyberspace. Not only do online services provide a convenient alternative to scouring the bars and the personals, they also enable us to hone our searches and even crosscheck to insure that the people who pique our interest are representing themselves honestly. Thanks to the system of checks and balances put in place by the more reputable online dating sites, it's actually more difficult for prospective partners to give us the runaround in the virtual world than it is for them to do so in the "real".
Ultimately, those of us who cultivate online love end up doing the same things as everyone else. We spend hours on the phone, we go out for dinners and movies, and we take things to the next level when the time feels right. But we step into these relationships armed with a lot of knowledge about our partners that we wouldn't have possessed had we not taken advantage of the new options and freedoms made available thanks to the Internet. Posted by eDatingCentral.com Jul 23, 2007 6:37 am
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