One in three new marriages starts online. By 2040 this number will rise to 70%.

As an aptly named Princess, of course I am PICKY. I don’t mean to be but I just know what I like and don’t like and I guess maybe I do have a type. So with that, its extremely difficult for me to find someone that I like who is on the same page as me. If I am actually interested in them, they are usually only looking for a hookup situation and at this point in my life, I just don’t have that time to waste.

Now since the days of blackplanet and myspace, shucks even AOL chat room days, I have never been interested in meeting people online and taking it offline. Recently with the influx of online dating sites, I still haven’t seen myself as the online dating type. I like to think I’m an old fashioned girl who likes to meet guys out through friends or at social events (and because I fear being catfished or meeting a pyscho.) Now I can’t deny that I have spoken to people online, and been introduced to someone on FB or IG… but to go as far as “talking” and going on dates, I haven’t signed up for that yet. Well until now…

A few weeks ago my sister’s friend dropped a jewel on me and a few friends when she said that if you are looking to hook up, then you go to the club or sites like Tinder or Plenty of Fish. But if you are looking for a real relationship and love, then you go on a paid site such as Match.com or eHarmony. If you talk to new couples these days, many will say they met online in some capacity; that thought has been stuck in my head since that conversation, and then it was really driven home the other night.

Over the weekend, I went to a dinner for a close friend of mine and I saw a couple that met online about a year and a half ago. When they met they hit it off immediately, and the man eventually got a job and moved to the same city as his newfound girlfriend, where they’ve been inseparable since. It was not until I realized that her new boyfriend looked a lot like her “type” that I had an epiphany. *ding* OMG… is that the allure of online dating? Can you go online and put the qualities you are looking for in a mate and hope to find a match? I’ve been so oblivious that I never really thought about the actual service that’s being provided!

I digress, even after the epiphanies, I’m still not running to sign up for online dating, but my mind has definitely been opened to the possibility. I think my hesitation is more based on not being ready to “look” for marriage right now, but maybe in the future when I’m ready and if I haven’t met someone in person, then I will try it. I am sort of interested in what the internet world has to offer, whose to say the man of my dreams isn’t on the other side of the computer screen…

What are some of your experiences with online dating? Do you know a lot of people who have married after meeting on the internet?

photo credit: Millzero Photography via photopin cc