The more that technology advances in our society, in turn, the more that people are going to turn to technology for more and more of their daily lives. It's not, then, a huge stretch to believe that more and more people are meeting people and falling in love on the Internet. This is a concept that I have personal experience with, so I feel as though I could serve as an expert on the matter.
For too long, I got into horrible relationship after horrible relationship. I'm inclined to put my partner on a pedestal after I become emotionally involved in a relationship, so I often found myself in situations where I was being used by my partner, be it emotionally, physically, or spiritually. I was in another one of those situations when I met him. He wasn't anything that I thought I wanted or needed in a relationship, but he was a good friend to me in a time when I needed one.
I found myself spending more and more time chatting with him on-line the longer that I knew him; I genuinely enjoyed his company. I found that he also enjoyed mine, but perhaps in a way that I wasn't necessarily comfortable with. He expressed his romantic interests to me one night, and I was scared. What had I gotten myself in to? The men you meet on-line are nothing but perverts and serial killers. At least, that's what the media wants you to believe.
If I was afraid that he would show up at my door to kill me, conventional wisdom dictates that I needed to stop talking to him immediately. I've never been known for my conventional wisdom, though, and I continued our chatting. I was certainly more cautious, though, once I understood his feelings.
A week later or so, I found myself one night out at an event that I had dreamed of for ages; a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet an iconic legend. What was surprising to me, though, is how I couldn't stop thinking about the man that I would usually be chatting with on-line at this time. It was then that I realized that perhaps this man meant more to me than text on a screen. When I went home that night, I told him that I had changed my mind and wanted to pursue a romantic relationship.
Not much changed between the time that we weren't dating and that we were, except that I was comfortable enough to give him my phone number so that we could speak over the phone, and that I would turn on my web cam to chat with him. I was still highly cautious, and felt that my expectations for the relationship were realistic. After a couple of months, we planned to meet. Fear set in for me at that point, but not because I was afraid of him, but afraid that he wouldn't care about me once we met.
He stepped off of a bus one night in my hometown, and instantly upon seeing him in real life, I felt the sparks that must have been there from the moment that we first connected. I knew, then, that this man I met on-line was more than a fling, but had the potential to be the love of my life, both on and off of the Internet I was right. We now live together and plan to get married sometime in the near future.
Where so many of my relationships failed me before, I am now more fulfilled than I ever expected to be, due to the fact that my expectations were realistic, and that I was cautious with my heart. These concepts are things that any dating coach will tell you in pursuing a "conventional" relationship, but I never took to heart. Essentially, falling in love on-line is no different than falling in love in the real world, except that the venue is different. Instead of meeting my fiance in a bar or at the grocery store, I met him on-line.