By Amy Jones
In today’s digital world, especially for Gen Z and below, meeting people online first is like the new norm and it’s rare that people build and form long-standing relationships with people they meet in person. But with online dating comes a lot of risk, including deception and this could be in multiple elements, such as their appearance, their personality, humour, values, morals and their general life.
Love online for some can be true, and for others it’s a steady slide into a false reality that leaves you heartbroken at the end of it, but it can also have more negative impacts on other areas of your life
What Is Love Online?
To a lot of people, they believe they can and have fallen in love having been introduced online, but this isn’t part of the debate, as you do eventually get to speak and physically interact with these people.
Love online, in this definition, is forming a connection with someone online and remaining online for a prolonged period of time. This might be because you get to talking to someone from a different country, so the idea of meeting in person is very limited and low possibility. If you have watched the TV show Catfished, it’s very much like that.
Is Love Online True?
When you look at TV shows like Catfished, it’s thousands of people who reach out to Nev and Max with regards to a person they have fallen in love with online and haven’t met in person. This is a prime example of why it’s very possible for people to form genuine connections and feelings with people online and while it didn’t always end positively, it’s still a representation of people becoming so invested.
That being said, there are real stories out there that prove online love can be true, and studies have taken place; 20% of online daters reported meeting their serious relationship online in 2022. 10% of Americans in general and 24% of LGBTQ individuals in particular have met their partner online.
In more recent years, the Netflix series ‘Love Is Blind’ is very similar to how some people fall in love online. While you can talk and hear the other person’s voice, you can’t see the individual, and season after season, people have fallen in love, and some couples make it all the way down the aisle and are still happily married to this day.
Overall, the analogy that every single person online is trying to deceive you and isn’t genuine is an inaccurate representation of online dating, and there can be a connection made with someone genuine.
Why Do People Try To Love Online?
There are many reasons why people join the online dating world; they might live in a small town and not have a match with anyone in their area. Which makes complete sense why they’d want to see what else is out there and not settle.
Another common reason is finding individuals with the same interests; as mentioned, it’s not always easy to find people local to you that share the same hobbies, which can be pretty lonely. Finding like-minded people can help you talk about things you enjoy and fill that empty aspect of your life.
Not to mention that it’s extremely comon now for people to meet friends and potential love interests through online dating, so no matter what your reason is, it’s likely valid and completely normal.
Is Love Online False?
It’s very well known that online love can be false, and I am confident in saying that people have spoken to someone online for weeks, got really good vibes, and it feels in the moment that you have a connection with them, but then you meet, and it’s completely different. I think a lot of people, when dating online, create an idea of what this person is like in real life, which isn’t reality, and in some cases, you might put them on a pedestal, creating a false idea of the real person.
While you do hear some success stories, they are very few and far between; hence, there are so many people using online dating because it’s not always straightforward to find something in common, and they end up happily ever after.
Strangers online can have ulterior motives; for example, people can connect with you online and match your energy in hopes of getting something from you, like money, but also visas are a big one. There are countless cases of individuals trying to get spouse visas, which is unfortunate for the people who are trying to find a genuine connection and a life partner.
81% of online daters acknowledged lying on their profiles about their age, height, weight, or a mix of the three, according to a 2008 survey. Users can display their finest selves to the world on the Web, and occasionally those selves are exaggerated.
Final Thoughts
Overall, online dating can be a very risky business, with people out there for ulterior motives. But nonetheless, love online is possible; it’s just not always reciprocated.