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 Internet Dating - Can It Work For You?
Millions of people log on to internet dating sites every year. The biggest Australian online dating site, RSVP, for example, has over 900,000 members all hoping to find love online. Is this possible or are all these hopeful singles wasting their time? Finding love at all is admittedly rare and the chances of finding it online are even more difficult. However, it can be done. According to RSVP over 1,200 marriages have resulted from couples meeting on RSVP.
The stigma still unfortunately attached to internet dating previously put many singles off but increasingly young professionals are turning to the Internet to find a partner.
Tina* met her American partner online. She met El Maestro*, her partner, through a chat room as long ago as 1996 (* Tina and El Maestro are not their real names but nicknames). As Internet relationships were rare then 'it was new, exciting and confusing all at once'. But she found that the anonymity of being online helped her form the relationship: 'You could literally create a character and become that person in cyberspace, without shyness, physical appearance or perceived flaws of the 'real you' being an issue. The greatest advantage for me was not having to worry about what people thought...My flirtatious nature took over and that's when I met my partner.'
Tina found El Maestro very quickly after going online. To her astonishment, she became very confused by her feelings and started to 'pull away because common sense was telling me I couldn't possibly be falling in love with someone I'd never met.'
The fact that she was Australian and he American complicated matters somewhat. 'When I first told her of my decision to fly to the U.S. to meet him, my sister was convinced he was an axe murderer!' she said. 'Even when El Maestro was arriving in Australia to live with me 3 months later and my family drove me to the airport to pick him up, they weren't really sure he was coming and kept reassuring me that 'no matter what happens' – everything will work out'.
Tina and El Maestro have been together since March 1996 and the longest they've been apart is 2 weeks. She said that: 'The weirdest thing about meeting for the first time and then moving in together was the fact that we were so comfortable in each other's company and there were no awkward silences.'
Sally Milne decided to try internet dating because a good friend suggested it. She used Personals, another Australian online dating site. Sally 'figured that if I followed all the rules about meeting in a public place and elsewhere it might at least give me some hilariously cringe worthy dates that I could laugh about with my friends!' She also met her boyfriend, Danial, straight away and 'found exactly what I had asked for, that is someone with similar interests and who could make her laugh and who could laugh at themselves too. Someone who could be romantic at times.'
After meeting for lunch in Coogee they: 'ended up walking along the beach, paddling in the sea (I know, I know, sounds like Mills and Boon!) We were sitting on the beach when I suddenly realized that four hours had passed. I had to end the date so I wouldn't get a parking ticket!'
The stories of Tina and Sally show that finding a successful relationship through internet dating is possible and that it is a valid means of finding love.
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