The truth is that dating in the traditional sense and settings is a distinctly hit-or-miss affair, and a largely impersonal one at that. You find yourself drawn to another person not because of their intellect or their personality but rather because they are physically attractive. As anybody who has lived and loved can attest, meaningful relationships are not built solely on the foundation of physical attraction. You don’t know the person at the other end of the bar from a stranger, however, and thus you have no idea if their beauty is in fact skin deep. Furthermore, even an indication that there is something else beneath the surface is hardly cause for relaxation; given the uncertainty of the other party’s history, there is no telling what sort of baggage you might be leaving with.
Online dating offers solutions to these problems in many cases. For one thing, instigating romantic contact online markedly increases in your favor the odds that the other party is interested. Think about it: How many times have you browsed online classifieds without the barest trace of purpose or desire? Having a receptive partner is half of the battle in itself. Beyond that, online dating increases the likelihood of finding something beyond the initial attraction to sustain prolonged interest. That’s not to say that physical attraction plays no role in online dating; photos are often associated with online personals, and as in life the most powerful impulses are often the visceral ones. However, the pace of online dating allows you to find out a bit more about the other party than you would be able to in a different setting. By the time you read their personal ad and their writing and (hopefully) exchange correspondence with them once or twice, you will probably have a decent idea as to whether the other person is the type that you would like to continue contact with. If no, it is an easy affair to cease contact since neither party is intimately involved. If yes, however, the base for a successful relationship has already been laid by communication.
Suffice it to say, online dating today has lost its “taboo” status. Rather, it represents a viable alternative to those singles who are tired of continually finding the wrong person in the wrong environment.