Online Dating

Online dating sites are said to be the place where you find your true love nowadays. It is where technology works hand in hand with the human need to find the perfect partner. Unfortunately, online dating is also gravely associated with fraud and deception.

 Several studies conducted on the concept of online dating have concluded that almost 20% of the dating sites users have admitted to lying. But when these people are asked how many others they think do the lying, the figure rose to as much as 90%. This is not just a coincidence. This is the truth about online dating.

 So you might ask, why do they do that? Simple. Lying, especially for the purpose of making a very good impression on others, is central to the process of courtship. As the saying goes, “Put your best foot forward.” Unfortunately, this ‘best foot’ that a member might have put forward may also be a phony one.

 Of all the information that people usually lie about, weight and height are the most common. Men usually shave off five to ten pounds and add at least two inches to their height. Women, on the other hand, commonly understate their weight by so much more and add an inch or more in their height. Women also tend to change some factors of their appearance and some even went as far as posting other people’s picture in their account. Studies have shown that the shorter and bigger the member is, the bigger the lies too.

 Age is also one factor wherein online daters greatly lie about. Women tend to reduce their age by five years to as much as 20 years, while men are more confident, commonly with only five years to lessen from their actual age.

 In their efforts to live up to the feudal society, men tend to lie more about their educational level, their income and their marital status.  Women seldom do this, instead they letdown their achievements so as not to scare potential male partners who may not be as accomplished as they are.

 These deceptions can be rooted to the fact that it is so much easier to lie when the other party clearly has no idea about you at all. It is easier to create an almost perfect virtual you than to make your actual self seem better. Some studies have even concluded that online daters find it harder to tell the truth which would put them in a bad light than to create an ideal person.

 There are also practical reasons for lying on the dating sites. The most obvious of which is that the larger number of people you have impressed, the higher the chances of finding the perfect person. Since it is easy to impress other people with achievements such as educational background and income, people tend to amplify their own accomplishments in order to have more people view their profiles.

 Although lying is an innate part of online membership sites, a lot of people still subscribe to these sites. As a word of caution, new members should be careful when selecting with whom to correspond and with whom to maintain a regular contact.