Eyes: Blue. Hair: Blonde. Height: 5’4″. Idea of a perfect date: Tall, dark, handsome, funny and honest. Click. Twenty-five soul mates found!
It seems too easy and good to be true. But with the way computers are taking over our lives these days, it seems only natural that online-dating is a growing trend, even though a lot of Fairfield students seem appalled by such a thought.
“Actually, one of my co-workers met his fiancé online … what a loser,” Frank Puzzo ’06 laughed.
Millions of people go to sites like matchmaker.com and collegepersonals.com. Such sites require extensive questionnaires asking everything ranging from if you are a smoker or not to your religious beliefs, all in an effort to find you a match.
But with only a keyboard at your fingertips, honesty becomes an issue.
“You just never know who’s on the other end,” Carolyn Hern ’06 said. “But actually my parents are going to a wedding this weekend for a couple who met online, and they have a wedding website!”
But people seem more at ease to be themselves behind the computer screen.
“Online in a way is even more honest. You aren’t judging someone by how they look and you eliminate that third party that often seems to create more issues than needed,” Rafuse said.
Despite any discrepancies, schools such as Georgetown even have their own online way of meeting fellow single students, staff and alumni at Georgetownsingles.com.
“That would never work at a small school like Fairfield,” Damien DiGiovanni ’06 said.
When asked about the future of dating, Megan Donovan ’06 said, “Seeing as people are becoming so dependent on AIM, online dating doesn’t seem so far-fetched.”
Then there is no surprise that “online dating is more prevalent on college campuses than people realize and that its popularity will grow over time,” as one online dating expert reported this past winter in the Vanderbilt Hustler.
This same article, “Internet Redefines Modern Dating,” stated that 40 million Americans visit internet dating sites every month.
Most people were not ready to admit they met their significant other online. Perhaps it was because it’s seen as “taking the easy way out,” as Rob Stanton ’06 suggests.
So, if you would appreciate the opportunity to ease your way out of an awkward silence with an “LOL,” someday, somewhere, someone may be typing in a search for you.
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