By: Kent Pinkerton
Modern technology hasn’t solved any of the problems of creating and preserving a good relationship. Computers and the internet have merely added a new wrinkle in old pattern of love and loss. With websites that specialize in matching people up according to whatever criteria they choose, there are more and more people finding each other but, unfortunately, not many manage to stay together. While internet dating services may make it easier for people in one location to find people in a different location, it does absolutely nothing to give them the tools they need to stay together once they’ve met.
“Beware of dangerous waters” with online relationships has become the password of the 21st Century. There are weirdoes everywhere, not only on the internet, and the same precautions that you would take meeting and starting a relationship with someone face to face should be maintained in online relationships, only more so. The real problem with online relationships is the users’ increased capacity to lie about who they really are and what they really want.
Meeting in chat rooms and communicating by emails often can lead to serious misrepresentations from both parties. Oftentimes when two online daters first meet in person, there is some initial shock. You may be a single woman, mid 30’s, of average height and weight and you may represent yourself as a 22 year old Goddess. More common in online relationships are the men who pose as singles looking for relationships, and are actually married and looking to cheat on their wives.
Even with background checks, photo exchanges and the like, there is no guarantee the people you meet online are anything like the people they say they are. But, alas, this has more or less always been the way it’s been, even before the internet came along.
