The World Wide Web has made remarkable changes in people’s lives. Communications made easy, research very accessible, and now dating from home, in front of your computer, is even possible! Online dating is now the biggest phenomenon in creating and building romantic relationships – you sign up on an internet dating website, update your profile, state what you are looking for in a companion, click submit and boom!
Thousands of possible matches of people (of the opposite sex, or not) who match your profile and could be, you know, THE ONE – your soul mate, your destiny, etc… It is possible that you can find that one person amongst the “profile matches” that appear on your screen.
There are a lot ways you can go about online dating: through online dating websites, through personals websites like Friendster, Facebook, Twitter, etc., or through Internet chat.
First, let’s delve into the magic of online dating websites. There are a lot of online dating websites out there, but in general, they all work the same way. First, you register. There’s usually a big “register here” banner or button on the front page of the website, so, take a deep breath, and click that.
You’d have to enter your name, age, gender, geographic location, a preferred user name and password for logging into the website, and of course your sexual preference. You can opt to include a picture of yourself (or a supermodel) for your profile. Adding a picture actually makes your profile more search-friendly.
After signing up, you’re ready to search the website’s database for people you might find interesting (or not). Some websites would ask you a ton of questions about your hobbies, your likes and pet peeves; even ask personality questions, to assist in finding your profile matches.
After answering these mind-boggling questions, the site will give you profile matches, some with even a percentage rating on how compatible you are to that person. Some would just let you search for profiles on your own. Once you find someone interesting enough, you have the ability to send a message to that person and then wait for a reply.
If that person does reply, then you’re on your own – you can either choose to continue messaging back and forth, or set up a meeting, however way you’d like to pursue your new found interest.
Then, there are the personals websites like Friendster, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and the list goes on. You also have to register to these websites, but this time you get your own page and you can say something about yourself, even get into the exciting (or boring) details of your life, include videos and songs that reflect your sentiments for the day, write blogs about your feelings and thoughts (sexually explicit as they may seem), add pictures of yourself, your friends, your family, your dog or any picture you find relevant to your profile.
These websites aren’t particularly for dating only, as you can add friends, co-workers to a network that you can interact with, view their profiles and their blogs, and so many other things. After signing up, you can now search for people, either friends or for your potential soul mate. You’ll have the ability to send them messages as well.
Internet singles chat is available in some websites or messaging systems like Yahoo! Messenger and also through Internet relay chat or IRC. You can download IRC clients or log in to the messaging system and then join a chat room of your choice. There are some systems where you’d have to sign up as well. You login using a username of your choice, be it a pseudonym, or your own name, if you prefer. After entering a chat room, a list of “chatters” will be seen.
You can then click on a specific nickname to talk to them in private, or you can send messages to the main chat room. You would have to be familiar with chat lingo so you can understand the chatters better and also communicate better. Learn, and then go forth (and multiply?).
Traditional dating is still fun, though, but it’s great to have options, right? Especially for the busy single people out there, it’s hard to find the right person to spend your warm or cold nights with, or if you choose, spend the rest of your life with. Online dating gives you freedom to meet people at the comfort of your home or office, during your free time, or even during sleepless nights. It’s worth a try, who knows, you just might find your better half online.
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