There's no doubt that a significant amount of our day to day communications with others have moved online. Emailing and instant messaging are frequent mediums for talking with colleagues, friends, and family. We read our news from online newspapers and even blogs, and we search for articles, recipies, and directions online. We can shop for clothing, cars, music, and home accessories online. We watch movies, TV shows, and listen to music over the internet. With all these aspects of our lives now available through our computers, it's little surprise that romance and dating has now moved online too, and has occupied a chunk of the web for some time now. Though this part of online communication carried a negative stigma with it at one time, this too is beginning to change. Partly, this can be attributed to evolution of popular online communication, from emailing, to message boards and forums, to social networking sites. The huge growth in popularity of social networking websites has made the leap to online dating little more than a small hop. However, many social networking sites are used to keep in touch with already established friends, while online dating sites are often used to meet new people.
As the industry of online dating is improving and growing, so is the rate of success, much like a snowball effect. As more people sign up, there is a greater potential to meet the right person, just as the likelihood of knowing someone who belongs to an online dating service who's had success with it. The more success people experience, the more likely they are to recommend a service to their friends and family. As a result, those around them are more likely to sign up for their own accounts. And so, the numbers grow, and the online dating industry increases exponentially.
