Love at First...Message?

Match.com Decoding the Profile
The new phenomenon of dating online has become more and more common for us, and for our parents. It is a way to connect to thousands of different people in different areas of the world, that are looking for a friendship, relationship, and love. As magnificent as online dating seems, there are quite a few negative aspects that potential daters have to be aware of and look out for.
First of all, by online dating, you allow yourself to be a person that is created by an online profile. Your profile is all that others have to go off of to base an opinion around, which causes most people to exaggerate just a bit. The sites such as Match.com, eHarmony.com, and yahoopersonals.com, encourage you to be "warm and interesting" and to leave viewers with a "sell-line" that will help them remember you. You basically have to put an image of yourself online, they say "No pix, no picks!" and encourage you to be as honest as possible with your answers to the questionnaire. But lets be honest, when they have a section for interests and you are able to pick as many as you would like, who is really going to limit themselves? Don't we think the more interests a person has, the more interesting the person must be?
My aunt, Michelle*, has been online dating for years. She loved the experience at first- the excitement of chatting with new people, the getting to know others and sharing information about yourself. But eventually, she let her guard down, decided to meet a few guys face-to-face, and wound up experiencing some of the negative aspects of online "profile dating".
She, of course wanting to make herself seem "warm and interesting" clicked a few interests that might not have been entirely honest. She clicked everything from camping to water polo- which in truth, she has probably camped once, and never actually seen, let alone played, a water polo game in her life. Her photo was a little outdated, but who's isn't, right? The point is to look good, catch some attention up front, and then after you chat for a while, he wont mind that you are 20lbs thinner in your picture.
After meeting her "tall, dark, and handsome" men in person, who, the majority of the time, turned out to be bald, short, and average at best, she got very discouraged. And out of nowhere, she finally met a very handsome guy, who lived out of the state, who had a great career, and was a widower looking for new love. Or so his profile said.
Turned out he lied about his wife passing away due to cancer, was still married to a very healthy wife, and had three children! He was using these dating websites as a tool of manipulation and deceit, and using these women's trust and vulnerability to feed upon. There is no way to monitor his honesty, to validate his profile, or to warn other women about his scheme. He is free in the online world to be whoever he wants, and to create whatever person he wants to be.
Most people like to think that they are productive, stylish, beautiful, and hard-working. These sites tell you to "put your best self forward" so who is really going to put "round" for figure shape, or "lazy" for a personality trait? Are there different levels of honesty that online worlds have created? Are the expected amounts of honesty different in real life versus online? What expectations do we have for how honest people should be and how accurate profiles really are?
According to the US Census , 44% of American Adults are single, 40% have tried online dating, AND there are more than 120,000 marriages a year that occur as a result of online dating in the U.S. (WomensOnlineDatingCoach.com). So you have to think that with that high of a number for marriages, something can be said for talking or meeting someone over the Internet. With online dating being so new, it is hard to find any divorce statistics at all, but I am curious to see in the future what the number turn out to be, and how compatible these people matched really are.
So how has online dating changed face-to-face time? I agree with the fact that online dating has given those who are "too busy" to date an outlet that they can control on their own time, and surf through possible matches when they get time, but whatever happened to finding someone attractive, starting a conversation, asking them to dinner, and seeing where it goes from there? Now it is all about how much time you spend on your computer and how many sites you are willing to pay a monthly fee for.
I understand the advantages for introverts, or for people who are on the shy side in public places, but isn't writing messages a huge disadvantage for those outgoing and energetic people whose personality can not really be portrayed through exclamation marks and smiley faces? So is it fair to say that online dating is not beneficial to all types of people? Or can it be argued that all people experience the same physical and emotional reaction to a message from a stranger expressing interest in you? Should online dating be taken more seriously by sceptical crowds or should serious online daters find other outlets and meeting places as well?
From Forrester Research Inc, in 2008 the online dating industry earned $957 million. This makes it the third highest revenue grossing industry.(Datingsitesreview.com)
My question is, although these sites are providing a service for what they are being paid for, are these sites taking advantage of desperate or extremely lonely individuals and promising results they can not guarantee? Is it fair to take advantage of ones loneliness and prey upon the unhappy or desperate part of the population?
How long do you think the trend of online dating will continue to increase? And if it does continue to increase, will the odds of finding a man in the real world versus the online world decrease? Where is the line drawn between priorities? I mean, if we don't have time to concentrate on the number one aspect of our personal life, meeting our true love, or finding our soul mate, what does that say about our values and meaning of life? Since more time has been spent on work and professional matters, has their importance superseded personal happiness and finding love? Have these sites enabled more people to put love second, and make it a thing to try whenever they get the time? These are all questions that only time can answer, unfortunately, and I am very curious to see how values evolve as the online dating trend increases.