Kelsey Yaich

The dating world is scary enough for the singles of today’s society, but when you add in online dating, it’s almost like playing Russian roulette.

You have the rare lucky couples who end up finding their soul mate or you have the unfortunate cases that end up as cautionary tales of online dating. Sites such as eHarmony or match.com take pride in statistics showing the chances of you finding love, but let’s face the facts: Online dating can be dangerous.

The general concept of online dating is overall an ideal way to meet someone. You can have a fresh start with someone completely new and who leads a life separate from the one you live.

You can open yourself up to new possibilities and people without even leaving the safety of your home. You can also have the opportunity of getting to know someone without wasting time on dates or uncomfortable situations; if you don’t like them online, then there is no reason as to why you would ever have to contact them again.

Another benefit of looking for love online would be that you can have your cake and eat it too, since you can talk to multiple potential suitors before choosing one who best suits your personality and preference.

These main concepts of online dating could possibly lead all of us lonely princes and princesses to finding our dream partner, but nothing is perfect. If you search for love online, you can never guarantee that things are what they seem.

In your mind, you could be talking to a 22-year-old male model from Los Angeles named Nick, but in reality, it could be some 60-year-old married man. Things aren’t always what they appear; especially since you wouldn’t have an appearance to judge.

Hiding behind a computer screen has become predators and criminals’ new favorite way of committing their crime of choice. The whole idea of online dating has never seemed appealing to me-are the risks of doing it really worth it?

There is a new reality show that has become popular called Catfish. This show is about couples who have fallen in love online and then meet in person. Every time the person who wants to meet their online partner ends up being “catfished,” which means to be deceived or lied to online.

The possibility of this happening to you should make everyone cautious of dating someone online. My perspective is that I would rather wait longer to meet someone in person that I could fall for who is who they appear to be, or I could waste my time falling for someone who I think is “the one,” when in reality, they are nothing like I was led to believe.

The biggest fear is to be a victim of a sexual offender.

The website onlinedatinghandbook.org, said that one out of every 10 sex offenders use online dating sites. This may not seem like
a lot, but even the chance of being a victim of that type of crime would scare me from the online dating world.

The possibility of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right is still out there, however. According to onlinedatinghandbook.org, in 2008, over 120,000 marriages took place because they began with Internet dating. That number has grown since then because technology has also grown.

These stories of marriage do give hope to those seeking love online. Sometimes when you reach a certain age, it gets harder to find someone near you that you can connect with.

Or, even if you are someone who doesn’t like to be judged on appearance and instead want someone to go off your personality and thoughts before anything else, I say good for you to take the chance and give online dating a try. But for myself, I wouldn’t take
the chance of heartbreak or danger.