Online dating :)

Today I just wanted to talk about internet and online dating websites. These are some of the topics I have been involved in other classes (like COM456 and COM491) as well.

For one of my communication classes, we had an discussion about online dating.
In a busy culture like ours, people just don't have the time to meet people when they are working, parenting, studying, and so on. My roommate and I been talking/gossiping about how and where we are suppose to meet men when we graduate. But nowadays, online dating websites like eharmony, match.com, and chemistry are the most common and fastest ways to meet new partners. Where would dating be without the web?

I've been looking at eharmony commercials (check them out!) on youtube, and whenever I look at their commercials, it makes me want sign up for eharmony. The voice of the commercials were very caring, nurturing, and hopeful...so for some reason, I have some sort of "trust" towards eharmony and match.com, just because they are well known websites, and their commercials are very effective and believable.
But can you really find true love or your soul mate through the internet? -- what do you guys think? Has anyone experienced this before?
This is all so new to me yet, so I can't not imagine falling in love with someone through a dating websites. But I do think that I find someone that has all the attributes I am looking for more easily.

It's funny how the internet has transformed the way we date. No one would have imagined this day would come. But believe it or not, internet is the new way to meet/date people now, whether it is good or bad. We often talk about "privacy" and how you might lose your identity through use of internet. I feel like not many people really care about those things when they are online. I never think about losing my identity or someone breaking into my account and so on. But it hit me when the guest speaker talked about how there might be 30 something viruses in my computer - but you just don't know about it. Also, someone in my other class (COM491) talked about how someone hacked into one of his professors email account, and sent out an email to all the students saying class was being canceled. So that afternoon, no one showed up to lecture.

Recently, I read an article about students fall in to online scams so easily. It is important to remember how easy it is for men and women to fake stories in order to get money from you.

From hearing all these stories and thoughts, it scares me. My name, pictures, address, and phone numbers are all posted online, and there is a possibility that anyone can access that information. But I never take cautious steps or think twice when I am posting something personal on websites.

Today my final thought is -- Let's all be careful and we all should use caution when looking for services or sites like craiglists, facebook, and twitter.