Wednesday, 17 June 2009

A Word about Online Personals

By Jayde Johanssen

You've heard about it. You've seen it in the movies. A lonely gal goes through the ups and downs of finding love on the internet. A lonely guy meets a girl online and they realize that even though they hate each other offline, their virtual lives are a different thing altogether (You've Got Mail).

This whole online dating, online personals thing was in the making for years. With the dawning of the internet age and the invasion of emails and instant messaging, online dating was but a natural progression.

When online personals first made their way into market, many people thought it was a desperate attempt for the socially awkward, for the oddballs of society. Today, however, people have embraced online dating. It's no longer seen as abnormal or strange. In fact, many believe they'll be able to find their soul mate easier online rather than off.

The whole system is a work of genius. Charging a membership fee to allow singles to browse personal profiles is pure gold. Today the online personals industry is booming.

Online dating really became popular in the early 2000s. That's when services like Match.com, eHarmony, and Yahoo Personals first cropped up and took off with a skyward trajectory. In August of 2003 alone, online personals drew over 40 million unique visitors in the United States. In terms of traffic, that's a huge number.

Those who aren't familiar with online personals are probably baffled as to its popularity. The mechanics of finding true love on the net may seem improbable. But it's really not. Online dating works much like social networking. You have a profile where you put down all your details. You add personal and physical characteristics such as height, hair color and weight, along with religious affiliation, race, profession, whether or not you smoke or drink, and other pertinent details. The profile also includes a write up of what you're looking for in a partner.

Users contact each other using on site private messaging. Most dating services allow uses to express emotions via virtual winks, hugs, kisses, etc. Users can then exchange email addresses and phone numbers once they feel ready.

Most online daters will attest that they like online dating better than dating in meatspace. Online personals are much simpler. They are more specific, more discerning. In the offline world, you're limited to people you meet in your town. Online you can meet people from all over the globe. And you can filter out those people who don't fit your idea of a match and concentrate on profiles that actually do seem appealing.

Just maybe your soul mate is looking right at you from behind your monitor.

There are downsides to online personals, undeniably. A lot of people have a propensity to lie about certain physical aspects. They make themselves skinnier, younger, or older, taller, etc.

But these types of fisherman's stories can usually be rooted out easily. For the most part, online dating works wonderfully. People really can meet their one and only on the net.

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