Dating and the Internet

By now I can comfortably say that the vast majority of my friends have been on at least one date with someone they met exclusively through the internet. I think that’s pretty cool.

Back in 1994 I started emailing with Manda Jane…which definitely turned into the first real relationship for both of us. The funny thing about it is that we knew each other before there was a stigma to meeting someone online (there was no widespread world wide web for the general public). And then soon after that there were all these tales of weirdos and pedophiles… but by now the whole thing is commercialized and once again accepted.

I think it’s a great thing. I’m not exactly the quiet type and the majority of my relationships have been through the “real world”…but I think that meeting people online (whether dating or just as friends) opens up so many possibilities. It can be a superficial thing (if you want it to be) or it can be a meeting-for-the-right-reasons endeavor. It’s all what you want to make of it.

I’m going to get myself in trouble for posting this–but before you object, look at some of your friends who are in relationships. Did it take place in a traditional circumstance or not? Or, even if it did…how much of a role did email and IM take place in the early stages?

Perhaps it’s a bit depressing that the medium for relationships has changed so much over the last few years. It opens up certain doors for communication but also removes a layer of privacy. For instance, there’s way too much information on me on the internet. Why couldn’t I just be like my employees, people like David Green and Kimberly Paul, who have nothing to worry about when it comes to internet research…

But I digress. If it weren’t for the internet I’d be in a very different place with my friendships and relationships. I would also lose a huge outlet for my personality–writing. Ever since Manda I’ve loved writing and sharing through email; it’s wonderful that I can meet people that way.

We all imagine that the next generation will have more and more people meeting through the web and basing relationships on IM. To some degree we have to temper that and make sure we don’t miss out on life. For now I’m just coming to better terms with this whole idea…as I too have a degree of paranoia. Like with anything else, it’s a matter of using your head and being careful. But why miss out?