 With all aspects of
our lives going digital, could relationships be left behind? Today,
friendships, dating, and even marriages happen via the internet. There
are a number of websites – each with its own look, feel,
theme and purpose – to help people form new relationships, as
also reinforce old ones, via the internet.
Social networking websites allow you to create an online profile of
yourself, where you can write about yourself, your ideas, views etc,
add pictures, and exchange messages with other users. You can use the
website to look for people with similar preferences and ideas, and get
in touch with them.
This also takes one’s search for a soul mate around the
world. You are not limited to meeting people from your school, college,
workplace, or church. In fact, you are not limited to people from any
place in the world, or from any walk of life. You just might find your
soul mate and companion halfway around the world!
Online dating
and marriage websites are a boon today, when people have
very little time to build relationships in the physical world. In the
virtual world, everyone can work in respective time zones, and yet be
together. It is a great tool for people who dislike going out often, or
do not have the time, money, confidence or desire to do so. The online
world gives them the opportunity to create bonds with others despite
any such barriers.
In this age of instant gratification, online networking and dating sites
provide a great way to get to know more people, quicker. Also, once you
are in touch with someone for some time, you can shed pretences and get
straight to certain awkward questions that might be hard to ask or
answer otherwise, and that would become thorny issues later.
However, this also allows people to pretend to be someone they are not.
Many people project an image of themselves, which is quite unlike the
person they actually are. Some people alter their image out of a desire
to be seen as someone who is better in certain aspects that they
actually feel lacking. Some people choose to reveal only limited sides
to their personality, in order to please others. While still others
create completely fictitious user accounts, and pretend to be someone
else. The last kind may do it as a joke, or for a sadistic sense of
pleasure. In either case, you need to beware.
It is generally a good idea to arrange to meet up with someone as soon
as you are thinking of him / her as more than a casual acquaintance.
That puts a lot many things in perspective for each of you. No matter
what the conveniences of online relationship-building, there is no real
substitute for meeting in the physical world.
Hence, online dating and marriage websites are a great idea that is
fast catching on in society. You get to meet the greatest people that
you would not otherwise even know that they existed. However, you need
to be aware of and careful about its pitfalls, too.
|
|
