Does online romance mean rewriting the rituals and etiquette of finding a partner? It all comes down to trust.
Is dating dying out in our wired-up modern world? Is online romance replacing traditional ways of meeting people? If so, does it change us; the way we feel, the way we love?
“It has a liberating influence because it multiplies our choices,” says Derrick de Kerckhove, director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology (and, incidentally, a professor of the language of love) at the University of Toronto, Canada.
There is no question that the Internet makes it easier than ever to date. You can do it whenever you want, wherever you want. You can hit on someone in Sydney while taking tea in Toronto. There is no need to leave the house, no crowded bars, no expensive drinks to buy, no noisy and rowdy people — and you can do it from the comfort of your own home.
Liberating, perhaps, but if you are serious about relationships you may have to navigate your way through a labyrinth of deceit and misrepresentation before you find ‘the one’. If you find the right person, that is.
The big problem with online dating? Lies, lies, lies! We’ve all heard horror stories of sexual predators and extortionists lurking on the Web, so it’s no surprise that concerns over honesty and security are universal fears when it comes to online romance.
> Continue reading this story in Cosmos
