A few years ago I remember the looks of pity my friend Jennifer would get when she mentioned she’d been trying online dating. Admittedly, at the time, I thought she must be desperate; couldn’t she meet anyone in ‘reality’? Didn’t she ever talk to people at work or at parties?

I judged her actions and concluded that she must be either a bit weird or socially inept. Of course, you know I wouldn’t be writing about this if she had never met anyone! Sure enough, she met someone online, they fell in love, and now they’re married.

Even one experience such as this in your own circle of friends can make you question your hasty judgments. So, could online dating really be the answer? Or, is best to just stick with the traditional method of meeting people, even though it hasn’t worked out for you yet?

Well, let’s say you’re occupied with work all day, you go out a couple of times a week with your usual group of friends (been there, dated them), and the rest of the time you’re doing chores and sleeping; realistically, how many new people are you going to come across?

Even if you managed to date, or even chat beyond pleasantries with, one new person a week, how many of those are likely to strike up any kind of connection with? Maybe one in a hundred, and that’s if you’re lucky. At that rate, it would take a couple of years to meet someone that you feel really attracted to.

So, what if you want to speed up the process? You do the logical thing and search a database of millions of people on a dating site. Isn’t it still a bit like shopping for a laptop on Amazon?! Isn’t it less ‘real’ than bumping into someone at a party?

Is sending someone a message any less ‘real’ than saying it directly to them? Be honest, do you message people on Facebook that you haven’t seen since your school days? Be even more honest, which mode of communication would you prefer when meeting someone for the first time.

Chatting to someone new that you like the look of is hard! Opening communication is way easier online. No more stuttered introductions or lame chat-up lines. You can think through what you say and ensure that you present yourself in the right way.

To summarize, not so long ago online dating seemed to me like a last resort for lonely people. Now, I’m convinced that it’s surely the best place starting place for finding a partner. Let’s say you meet ten new people per week through an online dating site, even if only one of those turns out to be eligible, you’ve enhanced your chances of meeting someone by 1000% over the natural method I mentioned earlier!
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You can find online dating reviews at http://www.bestonlinedating.co.uk, where the best dating sites UK are briefly reviewed and rated on a single page.