Online dating: A Boon or a Bane?

Is this a new movie or a title of a book focusing in love on the Internet? Think You've got mail, Must love dogs and Napoleon Dynamite, all films geared towards finding love or partners online. Have we really lost the era of romanticism?

While it is undeniable that a large number of people have found its way to online dating, it is certainly not regarded as a last recourse for those who have had a challenging time looking for dates. In fact, online dating is just like putting up a personal ad in a magazine or newspaper, a popular method in the late 80's and early 90's although online dating is much faster and more convenient.

What you get with online dating is the same as the personal ads in print, with so much more benefits and options. It's still a blind chase but at least you get to check on it everyday, like tracking down how many people viewed your profile, you get instant messages in a matter of seconds and responses to messages are instantaneous.

While some have thanked their lucky stars for online dating, some sees this as a curse, fit for the preying for online wolves. Admittedly, a lot of shady persons have used the cloak of anonymity of the Internet to mask their true intentions. Profiles are not completely honest, old photos are uploaded and some even have the audacity to ask for money.

There have even been reports of some people from different countries meet up, some women lured into sex in promise of a new comfortable life and probably marriage. But to online dating's credit, there have also been a lot of success stories involving a happy marriage or union.

Another known problems are with some online dating sites that have padded their member list with "bait" profiles, putting up more members to show that they have a vast membership. This would let a potential member think that there is a lot of people he or she can meet on the site and their chances of meeting a person they could probably like to get to know would grow higher.

But even with those mentioned problems, the popularity of online dating is rising at the speed and strength of a careening freight train at top speed. More and more websites have mushroomed and more people are signing up, sometimes even to more than two online dating sites.

The grasp of online dating sites extends to people who find the "chase" exciting and thrilling, the mystique of meeting a complete stranger adds up to the excitement.

There are also a good number of online dating aficionados that are relatively shy and would only be able to effectively communicate with other people behind the monitor using the keyboard as their mouthpiece.

Be it either for a short- or long-term relationship, online dating sites have already proven its effectiveness and reliability with a startling ratio of success stories.

There are now more than a thousand online dating sites, growing at en estimate of 35 percent increase each year. Shares in the market though are dominated by a couple of large websites which includes league giants Yahoo with Yahoo Personals, American Singles and Match.com to name a few.

But online dating is not only for us Americans, although we do dominate the market. The online dating bug has also bitten Europe with increased memberships seen and more and more European online dating sites popping up.

With the trend in growth going sky high, it wouldn't be a wonder that five to ten years from know, a great number of married couple would attribute their meeting to online dating.

But unlike a romantic movie, not all person that you meet online is a prince just waiting to ride his white horse or a damsel in distress in a high tower just waiting to drop her hair for you to climb and live happily ever after.

Get to know a person thoroughly first and if possible, get him or her to show herself or himself through a webcam, then gradually go to talking through phones. Take it slow before agreeing to personally meet each other.

Click, Find Love - it might as well be the start of your own love story.