Online dating is a booming industry and chat rooms are brimming with individuals of all age looking for their next meaningful relationship.

Online dating is quickly becoming part of everyday life with apps on our phones making it easy to connect with people closer than we could ever imagine and to tick all the right boxes before we even meet with them. Being brought up with online dating and choosing partners through chat rooms or an online profile is potentially how future relationships will be created. Even if we do meet someone through ‘traditional’ means in work or via a friend of a friend, I bet the first thing you do is go online and ‘check them out’.

So is there a place for online romance or does nothing compare to a real relationship. When speaking with friends and family I am sure some online romances have been filled with confusion and uncertainty whilst other online relationships catapult people into opportunities they may have difficulty finding in reality.

Facing Your Online Fantasy

The rise of social media and engaging online relationships is certainly very real, that is not up for debate. Over the past decade or so social media has had a tremendous impact on the way we lead our lives. As a networking tool it is unparalleled in its ability to reach out to maximum numbers within an instant timeframe. More and more people are turning to online relationships as their main source of romantic interaction and finding potential partners. But does this really replace dating face to face and experiencing the challenges and excitement of meeting in person? Online dating should be a tool to be used to find potential partners, and even get to know them in some respect prior to arranging to meet or date them in person. However, people are starting to skip that part and just enjoy the safety of having a relationship online in place of a ‘real’ relationship. Different individuals would be more drawn to either real dating or online dating depending on what they desire, their social skills and what they are looking for in a partner. However, having the best of both worlds by using an online relationship to foot the foundations for a reality romance would be the healthiest and more productive way forward in terms of deciding whether your online relationship is the real deal or the stuff of fantasies.

Shopping for Success

Chat rooms hold users well into their hundreds and thousands, each specifically tailored for different wants, needs and desires. With this in mind you can then change your approach to find the partner that’s right for you and be granted access to possibly hundreds of potential partners. This is certainly not the case in reality. Online dating increases your pool of potential partners literally within minutes, more than you can possibly imagine when going about your regular day to day activities. This is certainly a plus point for online romances as you can pick and choose people very quickly who fit your criteria. Even to the extent of knowing their hobbies, interests, location, types and sexual orientation before you meet or start chatting. This certainly has to be an advantage to real life dating don’t you think?! Or could it take away the fun of finding out yourself?!

However, with your potential partners now into their hundreds within minutes can you tell anymore what and who is real or an online fantasy? Shopping for your potential partner can be tiresome and as the saying goes you have to ‘virtually’ kiss a few frogs before you find your prince. This is a lengthy process as opposed to a natural connection in real life that plays with your heart strings and tummy butterflies.

Real or Fake

Online chat rooms provide an endless way to find potential matches and chat to partners who suit what you are looking for. This safe environment does allow you to freely chat with new possible connections whilst building your confidence with partners of the opposite or same sex with different sexual orientations. These very convenient opportunities to chat not only boost your confidence but can improve your levels of communication with many potential partners without the boundaries of commitment and time. The safe and secure environment of chatting with many people at once is certainly an advantage when searching for your ‘prince’.

Although as with all modern technology there are limitations, online dating does limit your ability to really get to know someone. Without personal interaction you miss out on the chemistry and environmental ques and body language. These are the fundamental basics behind the excitement of dating. The validity of who you are chatting with online suffers because you have never met and they may not be who or what they say they are. They may well be saying the right things, and for some people this may be enough fulfilment, but for true romance the reality of the tactile connection must be there. This artificial way of building up an online romance does lack the human element; but if it’s used as the underpinning connection for real personal meetings offline at a later time then your dating experiences will be strengthened. Online romances as a sole purpose to just chat will never venture beyond the fantasy of who you are speaking with. The danger starts when a person relies on the online connection in its entirety without the opportunity to meet up and validate the relationship.