For those who have been growing up with the digital world and latest technologies like computers and cell phones, it has become a convenient platform and a primary way in making virtual friends and in expressing their emotions. Moreover, in a fast-paced life when people are either too busy or too tired to find time to look for a date, the Internet becomes the ultimate haven to express their love.
Though there are some pitfalls to be aware of when dating online, like the instance when people may misrepresent their appearance or private details, people however are banking on it. The trend of dating online, it seems, has slowly started to pick up in the capital as well.
“I don’t think I can spend a day without checking my Facebook account or my mails,” shares Aparna Neupane, 23, a student who also found love through the social networking site itself. “I really find dating people online as a very good option because it gives you that opportunity to learn about the other person in a fun way,” she adds.
She goes further, “By exchanging emails and though online chatting, you also get to know each other slowly without the awkwardness that comes with first dates. Moreover, when you finally choose to meet, then you already know a lot about each other and so that helps both partners in feeling comfortable.”
Aparna further explains how for introverts and those who cannot open up easily, meeting people online can give you that confidence to express themselves.
Internet thus breaks that barrier and helps in letting people see the true core of one another. Also, compared to older times, technology has added that sense of immediacy that was absent in the days when people had to rely on letters and phone just to get some response.
“Gone are the days when we just had to depend on phone and letters to make relationship happen,” says Sumit Bista, 23, a student who boasts of having many virtual friends.
He further explains how depending on phone calls creates a sense of urgency and the apprehension of whether the other person will call or not, or if he or she is ever going to call at all. Those whose relationships started this way had to maintain it that way, or it ended in those days before the advanced technology arrived. “This insecurity isn’t felt while dating online,” he adds.
Santosh Ghimire, 26, a banker, is also in a relationship with a person whom he met through a social networking site. “The thing I like about online dating is that it’s really easy to figure out if someone is compatible with you or not, and if that person is the one that I’m looking for,” he says.
According to him, if you meet random people at random places, you wouldn’t be able to extract important information about that person in an easy way.
Moreover, he adds that technology is so advanced these days and there are so many networking sites available to make friends. “So when you have the choice of making friends or even finding potential partners through such sites, why not seize the opportunity?” he suggests.
For Kalpana Banskota, 24, a student, love happened through the Internet. “I can’t imagine how my love would’ve bloomed had it not been for the Internet,” she says.
Maintaining a long distance relationship for the past two years, she thinks that staying in touch would have been really difficult if there had been no Internet. “I think my relationship depends on it to a larger extent,” she says with a certainty.
Internet these days not only has become the platform to socialize with each other but also to have romantic affairs. It lures people so much that they are compelled to leave their actual world and immerse themselves in to the cyberspace.
“I still make new friends through the social networking sites, and as always, it’s full of surprise´s,” says Kalpan“, “Also, I never knew that I would fall in love through the internet.”
Brother Valentine would be happy to know about the post-modern metamorphosis of the trend he set in the medieval times.
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