The growing popularity of online dating has given rise to a common question. Do they provide a better platform for potential daters compared to the more traditional forms of matchmaking? Or are there too many risks associated with entrusting your details to a website in the hope you’ll get matched?
One of the reasons for the explosion of online dating is this undeniable truth: the service they provide is way more convenient than old-fashioned courtship. Offline dating perhaps does come a poor second, and here are the main reasons why.
Convenience
Online dating reflects the times we inhabit. In our daily lives, we are surrounded by technology designed to make our lives flow that much more efficiently. Most people leave home these days only after confirming their smart device of choice is safely lodged in their pocket. Said electronic gadget is bursting with apps and widgets that can be used for everything from ensuring your car is locked to
informing you the time your next train is due, booking a ticket while you’re at it.
This convenience extends to social media. We can now communicate with friends and friends of friends, sharing photographs and jokes, commenting on the issues that affect everyone. Online dating is a logical extension of this, providing a resource that allows you to take social media message exchanges that little bit further, introducing flirting into the mix.
The power to determine what you do with your access to online dating services is entirely in your hands. Do you want to meet up with a stranger for a casual fling? Are you looking to start dating someone who shares your taste in music or is equally passionate about your favourite sports team? Do you have particular sexual tastes you’d like to discuss openly with someone in a discreet environment?
A dating site will allow you to do all of these things, and far from giving you such a wide selection of profiles to browse through that meeting the right person becomes a bit of pot luck, the opposite is the case. These websites are often designed around compatibility, so the least likely matches will be filtered out until you are only presented with the most suitable range of potential partners.
Establishing chemistry
With offline dating, getting to know a new partner really well can often take considerable time. People meeting up in face-to-face situations can be guarded about themselves. In other scenarios, they are nervous about making the wrong impression so they won’t be entirely honest, or they’ll stretch the truth when revealing aspects of themselves.
Online dating requires a greater degree of commitment from the two parties. There is never a sense that a date must be made in the real world as quickly as possible because the virtual environment is such a comfortable place to connect. Partners are more likely to relax and be honest with whoever they’re chatting or flirting with, safe in the knowledge their message exchanges are protected by the website’s security mechanisms.
This atmosphere is conducive to the proverbial ‘letting one’s hair down’. Couples chatting online are more likely to allow their conversations be dictated to by honesty. In an offline setting, daters may well be reticent, worried about being overheard in the bar if they declare their innermost feelings. Online, operating in a discreet chat environment, couples are free to share their deepest and most eloquent thoughts. These communications can be drawn out for as long as either party feels like it, and the level of flirting often rises with the length of time spent connected online.
This all leads to chemistry being developed over a period of time until what this partnership have forged between them is so hot that sparks should be flying from their message exchanges. At this point, one or other of the chatters can suggest they actually meet up for a face-to-face. The get-together is surely one of the main aspirations once you start connecting in the virtual world. But it will prompt so much anticipation when you have only known someone through their texts. Meeting your virtual love in the flesh is what online daters dream about. So don’t hesitate!