Is It Possible to Find Love in Cyberspace?

Remember the old days, when couples met for the first time at a bar, in the produce section of the grocery store or a party given by a friend of a friend?

There would be that first shy glance, then a second glance before some sort of an ice breaker such as, (if it was in the produce isle). "What is an eggplant anyway... and how do you make it"? If it was at a friend's get together, "You look familar, haven't we met somewhere before"? Either way, you were meeting in person, in the flesh, eye to eye, for the first time.

These days, singles can join one, two or three of the more than a dozen online dating services. Singles can literally choose their potential mate from an ala' carte list, much like ordering from a Chinese restaurant. They can order up a potential mate by age, hair color, weight, location and much more.

In the old days, before the internet, it would take two to three months of dating to really get to know this new and exciting person and if it did not work out, you broke up and stopped seeing them. In todays modern internet dating world, singles can go for days, weeks or months chatting, e-mailing or texting throughout the various dating sites without ever meeting anyone personally. It would appear a much kinder, safer way to find your soul mate....but is it????

These days, it is possible for two people to meet, get to know everything about each other, what they look like, their favorite movies, books and sexual positions and preferances and never actually meet or even speak on the phone. It is called "social network dating". A much safer, sexually speaking, way of getting to know someone before actually becoming intimate with them.

Couples can "tweet" on Twitter or "factualize" on Facebook for months before they actually meet face to face. And, it's not like any old "chat room". These social networking sites also allow potential suitors to meet their love interests' friends, family and even co-workers to see how they interact with others and how others interact with them. They can view photos of family members and close friends. It is possible to become a "voyeur" into their love interest's life before they decide to jump in themselves. As their relationship progresses, they can even have "safe cybersex" before the real thing. By knowing this person intimately beforehand, having cybersex is safer and they can feel confident that they are not dealing with, perhaps, a pedifile lurking in an online chat room before it is too late. Afterall, although Twitter and Facebook do not guarantee everyone is telling the truth about themselves in their profiles, it would be hard to make up friends, family and co-workers whom you relate to on these sites each and every day.

However, with that said, if today's cyberspace couples meet and spend months Facebooking and Twittering, will they really ever get to know each other i the real world? Will they know how their potential Mr. or Ms. Right responds in an emergency situation, handles their money, keeps a clean home or can relate to their father who has Altzheimer's or ex-spouse who tends to call too frequently? So, how do we get to know the real person behind the keyboard without spending face to face quality time with them?????