5Well, I'm here to say that Internet dating is not something you should be ashamed of. A little background information on my knowledge of how Internet dating turns out is as follows: my mom met my step-dad online, my sister met her former boyfriend and her present boyfriend online, my dad met my x- step-mom and my current step-mom online, and my aunt met her husband online. It does not conclude there, however. I met two guys that I have dated online.
Now I continue on to my answers for the questions that I have presented. Internet dating has a negative connotation, but why? People make fun of what they know little about. If something is not known, people simply brush it off as something weird and not kosher. Internet dating is not something that everyone feels comfortable trying because of its negative connotation. It's a very cyclical thing.
Why does it seem like a loser-ish thing? It seems that way because people make it out to be that way. You're not a loser if you go looking for love online or even if you just happen to find it. Do you realize that you have a better chance of finding your soul mate online than you do out in the "real world"? Online you can simultaneously find out information about several different people. You can more accurately find people with the same interests, aspirations, desires, dreams, and thought process. You have access the whole world over instead of just your little town. Now what's so loser-ish about having a boyfriend who lives in London or a girlfriend who lives in Paris? Nothing.
Are people really losing touch with the real world if they spend their time online with their Internet boyfriend/girlfriend/friends? No, they're not. True, more time may be spent online instead of out doing stuff, but if they had a boyfriend/girlfriend that lived near them, they would be spending time with that person anyway. It's really not much different from a regular relationship and people should not see it as these people slipping away from the real world. The only difference with Internet relationships is that the time that would be spent with the other person is not done physically but rather emotionally and mentally. As far as I am concerned, the Internet relationship is better off for that.
In short, I don't feel that Internet dating should be looking upon poorly. As someone with very close ties with people who have had success with it and having had a few trips though that type of ordeal, I advise that everyone who isn't having luck finding someone to date in person goes online and finds that special someone.