Written by Kimmy Nguyen

Discovering the positive side to dating online.

I must admit, I’ve been a little embarrassed to tell people that I’ve started online dating. It seems like there’s such a stigma towards finding love online. Well, it’s 2014 – and we seem to find everything else online…so why are we hesitant to do the same with love?

Everyone is looking for that perfect love story. We all know how it goes – you happen to run into “The One” on your way to work and, despite all your differences, you fall madly in love, get married, and have a butt-load of wonderful children. I think that sounds pretty damn good! Sadly, that’s not really how it works.

Personally, I can’t say that I meet many new people on a day-to-day basis – I’m just not the type to strike up a conversation with a stranger. I know I’m not the only one. It’s not that I’m antisocial – I’m just a little more reserved and I tend to assume that any good-looking man is already spoken for!

When it comes to dating online, there is a common assumption that it’s only for the desperate, the socially inept, and the unattractive. But more often than not, I’ve stumbled across very impressive profiles – like a tall and totally hot 28-year-old engineer who likes to travel, is close to his family, speaks German, and is well read. Definitely someone worth sending a “wink” to!

I’ve come to find that there are a variety of reasons for someone to venture into the world of online dating. For one, a lot of people have spent their 20’s focusing on their careers. Now that they have ended up exactly where they want to be professionally – finding love is the next thing on the list. Dating online is great and convenient, because it’s hard to find people at this age that aren’t already shacked up!

Dating online is also a great resource for those who are new to Calgary and are having a hard time meeting new people who they don’t work with.

For me, it’s because I’m out of town so much for work and this was the best way to avoid completely halting my dating life while building a career.

So, what are some of the best perks? If you can get through the struggle of properly making your profile (there are, like, a million questions…) the dating site filters your matches according to your preferences. On the flipside, if your match has survived the eHarmony interrogation, you can see exactly what they’re looking for and decide for yourself whether or not you fit that description. Within one day, you could have 15 perfect matches right at your fingertips!

Obviously, just because you like them doesn’t necessarily mean the feeling is mutual. Another bonus is that the rejection isn’t nearly as harsh as it is in “real-life” because you don’t actually know this person.

My advice? If you like what you see, send that first message and see what happens. It could be the beginning of something great or worst case scenario – they just creep your profile and never respond. This may hurt, but you’ll get over it in like 15 minutes once you have a new match.

No matter the outcome – the online aspect takes a lot of pressure out of the “wooing” phase of the dating game. It’s far better to take the chance than to miss it. Worst-case scenario for the ladies? No, you may not find “The One” but you might get your membership fee back in the form of food and drinks.

So, to put match.com’s commercial into my own words: why the hell not?!