Online Dating: New Heaven Where Marriages Are Made?

By Arshiya Mediratta:

Online dating, especially in India, is like walking on egg shells- you can never fathom the damage it can cause. It could be a pool of blatant lies, a well-planned trap to execute some kind of personal vengeance, or in rare cases- a decent person, in an unfortunate setting. It would be hasty generalization to conclude, that every online dating ‘victim’ has suffered; I have personally read some success stories of online relationships that have resulted in marriage. My point, rather question, here is that have we, as a society, lost faith in the age old techniques of finding love? Is online dating another form of “playing-safe”? Everything looks clean through a medium, and maybe that is why many people feel so confident and secure when they decide to take a plunge into the inter-webs. Is internet the new ‘heaven’? Let’s find out.

There are always two sides to a coin, and similarly, even though by going through somebody’s profile we can get an insight to their hobbies, work experiences and passions, which would traditionally take a couple of dates to comprehend; we must not forget, that the person on the other end is a complete stranger- someone who could be playing you just for the kicks.

Online dating gives us a chance to know people from across the globe; it widens our chances to find love and is extremely beneficial for those of us who are meek and shy at blind dates. But then again, the internet can provide a veil of anonymity to anyone who may desire it, hence having blind faith in the person on the other end of the computer is never a good idea. In India, however, love is a very fluid subject, and so is marriage. Once a person reaches a ‘suitable’ age, his/her family and friends take it upon themselves to hook them up with a ‘suitable’ match. One of the many popular ways of doing it is by enrolling them in a dating/matrimonial website. These websites are a jar of hope for a majority of our population who is always complaining about the lack of availability of trustworthy partners these days. Another boon of these sites is that anybody, of any age, can become a part of these online portals and filter their preferences without being a subject of public mockery.

Due to some extreme cases of cyber crime and bullying, the quintessential essence of online dating is gravitating towards a lesser accepted way of finding and meeting people. Personally, I would like to conclude by saying that even though it’s certainly worth the benefit of the doubt, do not stretch your hand out too far.