As time passes by, the Internet and technology that we use have gotten more advanced day by day. This impacts a lot of things in our daily lives, such as economy, basic needs, culture, and more importantly, social interaction. Due to the increase of the use of technology and the overall advancement of technology, we’ve gotten ourselves to the point where we don’t need to see someone face to face to interact with them or wait for a month to hear something from them back. This comes with a lot of perks, and one of them includes starting a mutual romantic relationship with someone you can’t or couldn’t meet in real life, as known as Online Dating.

Online Dating (also known as Internet Dating) is a phenomenon where two or more people try and indulge themselves in a romantic relationship with each other with the use of technology or through the Internet. Online Dating usually happens in apps or sites that are specifically made to find your mate online, but in some cases it can also happen through social media where it’s more advanced than a dating app but it can function the same way as one.

Some people might think that dating virtually is more or less the same as dating people in real life, and that’s where they’re wrong. Online dating has its own pros and cons, ones that are different from dating in real life.

For starters if you ever start to date online, it could improve your confidence before dating people in real life and it could also develop your social skills. Talking can be hard for some people and connecting with one another can also be very hard, that’s why we can use the virtual world as a means to practice and get more comfortable with talking to other people. Online Dating can also expand your range of friends / mutual connections, it can connect you with a lot of people that you can’t physically see in real life, and again, improve your social skills with other people.

Online Dating can also be a good starting point for introverts who want to try dating themselves but are too afraid to put full commitment into a relationship in real life. The progress of an online relationship is by far much slower and weaker than that of one offline, so people who are relatively new to the concept of romantic relationship can take it easy or slow first.

Lastly, some people just do it for fun, for the thrill of it, or nothing really special. Some might treat it like a serious situationship, but some people would just like to form romantic bonds on the Internet just to try it out or to have fun with it. Usually romantic relationships that start with this process will end up in both parties developing feelings for each other, slowly but surely.

But like all things, there are two sides to every coin, for every positive trait there are also negative perks to dating online, even more than the good side of it. For one, because it is a relationship built on a virtual platform, there will always be limits to how much you can communicate with each other with the app / website. Limited communications or restrictions could ruin the experience of online dating because it would mean that you can’t talk with the other party as much as you wanted to.

Second, because technology has gotten way more advanced than it was before, it is very easy for someone to trick other people by using Online Dating as one of their methods. It could be a form of scamming or “Catfishing”. Catfishing is a term for someone who fakes their identity online just to satisfy a person they are talking to, whether it’s out of good will or malice. Being a victim of catfishing can impact you a lot. Long term catfishing can potentially lead you to being skeptical of others and will have a hard time trusting other people again.

Regarding catfishing, it also gives an unfair advantage to those who are seriously looking for a romantic connection online only to find out that their “special person” wasn’t even a person they thought were special this whole time, and for the catfishers, it shows to them that the person they’re tricking with only wants to bond because of how they see the catfisher in their head or how they imagined them to be. In the end, the act of catfishing, which is a common case in online dating, harms both parties, but the blame is all for the catfishers to take.

So how do we avoid this particular scenario from happening?

First, you need to double check the person who you’re talking to. It’s good to take extra caution to the person you’re talking to, because they’re nothing more than a stranger to you. Second, watch out for dangerous signs or red flags from the other party. If they are doing something that leaves you confused and afraid, leave them. Lastly, make sure to keep your private information to yourself. Do not post your information so publicly online, it will harm you and get back to you once the time comes.

But if a relationship does end up being pretty healthy, how do we keep it the way it is until both parties grow old and want to develop their relationship to the next step?

The main factor of a healthy relationship is a healthy communication base. If you are ever having troubles with your partner, the most important thing to keep the relationship intact is to keep in contact with them. Communicate with them on what’s bothering you, and if your partner knows you well enough, they would eventually understand you and comfort you.

In conclusion, online dating is a way of finding someone special to you through an online site / app that’s available on your mobile device. It has its good sides, and it also has its bad sides, most people will point out that online dating has more drawbacks to it rather than perks. Whatever path people want to choose for their romantic life, all you need to do is to know what risk you’re putting yourself into and stay safe interacting with strangers on the Internet.