Dangers vs. Benefits of Free Online Dating

Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under Communication, Life

The Internet is just a different way for men and women to meet. On the Internet, you have to be ready for the added risk of meeting someone who will do hurt to you. This does not mean that you should not take the risk. Of course you can just keep your eyes as open as your heart.

Online dating is a popular mode to meet people and is being used by more and more

singles every year. Online dating is not as personable as real life relationship-hunting in many ways, but there are too many benefits to online dating to discount this new dating world altogether.

Benefits of online dating:

The most important benefit to online dating is safety. When you sign up at any given dating and matchmaking service, you remain anonymous to everyone. No one sees your full name, address, email address or phone number. Absolutely no identifying information is given out until you give it out at your own discretion to the candidate of your choice. With online dating you are the one that says when and where. When you are dating the old fashioned way, you are required to give out your name, number and other personal information. This significantly decreases your safety and privacy.

Online dating is faster. Meeting someone online is a lot faster than traditional dating. Just login to your online dating site and perform a few simple searches to bring up your potential matches. From here, if they are online, try sending them an instant message request or your could write a personal email that is tailored to the individual.

Rejection is easier online. It never feels good, but it’s easier to just not get a response back after you “wink” than to have someone walk away from you at the bar.

You have time to think. It’s easy to get flustered when meeting someone in person. You speak impulsively and react instead of acting. The online relationship develops differently and you can take time in responding if you need to.

Internet is 24/7. The Internet is up all day and night and never sleeps. In fact, there are a lot of people online that never sleep, either. You have the luxury of searching for a soul mate anytime, day or night. You could never do this in the offline world.

Make your profile free. The best online dating services allow you to sign up and create a profile completely free of charge. This allows you to log in to the website and cruise the site for potential matches without paying a dime. From there you can see who is using the site and if you would like to join and meet the other members.

Everyone is Available. Who joins a dating service unless they want to meet someone. Going out to a bar or a club to meet singles for dating can be successful but most likely less than half the people at these places are there to meet someone to create a relationship. They may be there just for a good time with their friends.

Online dating links you with people all over the world. If you are moving soon or have recently moved, you can find singles in that new area without physically being out there yet. You can also pursue relationships from afar if you find that you are willing to move for someone but are not sure yet where you’d like to go. In most profiles, you can see if the other person is willing to move for a relationship or not, so it makes it easy for you to understand another’s feelings about such things.

Be warned there are also a lot of dangers associated with online dating. While both men and women are at risk it is generally the woman who will be exposed to the more severe dangers and we would like to help you to protect yourself and to stay safe. Here are a few dangers of this form of dating that you should be mindful of in your pursuit of internet love and happiness.

Dangers of online dating:

The very first danger of online dating is when you become a scam victim. Not everyone in the online dating scene is a good guy or girl. Many scam artists masked their real identity in order to cheat someone not only of their money but emotions, feelings as well. Sad but true – many women “catch” men and ask them for money by giving empty promises. Then after the money comes to them, they disappear. There are even cases when men sexually assault the women when meet up for a date after they “meet” on an online dating site.

Be careful about sharing your email. As mentioned, most online dating sites allow you to use an anonymous internal communication system. Make sure you take full advantage of that. If you do start to feel comfortable with someone and would like to share an email address with them, don’t use your regular email address. Set up a free email address that you use strictly for your online dating activities. You can easily obtain one through yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc.

Don’t move off the online dating site too soon – Make sure you feel comfortable with the person before you give them your email address out of the system. It’s true, they may not be able to respond to you if they aren’t a paid member, but if they’re interested enough, they’ll sign up to respond!

Be careful about sharing your personal information. It’s easy to get sweptup and excited about the possibility of a new romance. However, the anonymous nature of online dating sites makes it just as (if not) more important than ever to protect your personal information. Don’t share your full name. Never give out the details of exactly where you work, or go to school. Don’t ever give out your address. Be very careful about giving out your telephone number. This is especially true of your cell phone number.

Select the meeting place carefully – Be sure to meet for the first time in a public place during “normal” hours (between 10am and 8pm). Don’t digress from the plan and go anywhere with the person unless you’re completely comfortable with them.

Don’t let your guard down until you meet their friends/family/coworkers – This ensures that you can cross-check some of the things you know to be true about the person. If you never meet anyone that the person knows (a friend, family member, or co-worker) and the person can’t offer anyone up for a double-date, after work drink, or other social encounter, you have a right to be suspicious!