It’s all true online, right?

Nowadays online dating seems to be growing more popular, due to shows like MTV’s Catfish. Will face-to-face dating ever become a thing of the past?

Melissa Giugno – Staff Writer –

Thomas Montgomery types away on his laptop to his online lover. She is an 18-year old girl that goes by the username of TalHotBlonde; Montomery comes to know her as Jessi. Montgomery asks Jessi to call him Tommy and goes by the username MarineSniper; Montgomery goes on to tell the young woman that he is also young man as well, and a marine. After two years, he starts a sexual relationship online with the young woman, and Jessi and Tommy both admit to falling in love.

According to ABC’s 2020,  Jessi’s young stud Marine was actually a balding middle-aged man, married and  father of two; and Montgomery’s tall hot blonde, also lied and was really a 45-year old  home maker named Mary Shieler. The internet affair led to a bitter love triangle where Montgomery murdered his old friend and co-worker, Brian Barrett.

Whether it’s social networks, email or video sharing, the internet is bringing people around the world closer together. Because of this, it is more common that students are choosing to date online. It is also becoming more apparent that the lies between TalHotBlonde and MarineSniper are not just coincidence.

Channise Ortega, a sophomore social work major, said that she doesn’t like the idea of online dating, and thinks online dating is too dangerous.

“When I think of online dating I think of [the show] Catfish. I just feel like it is a whole bunch of false information to attract other people. I personally wouldn’t do it because I am a more face-to-face person.”

Ortega goes on to express the importance of keeping personal information–such as where you live–private. She goes on to say that students need to be safe in all their online dating endeavors.

Freshman graphic design major Pablo Soto shares Ortega’s opinion of online dating; Soto also feels online dating is something that shouldn’t be trusted.

“I don’t think it is a trustworthy thing, there is the problem where people pretend to be other people just so they can find someone and it can lead to rapes and other types of accidents that happen.”

Soto goes on to say that a way to protect students from online predators and still being able to meet their online companion is to simply bring a friend.

“I would definitely suggest having someone bring you or bringing someone else to see who they are meeting.”

Samantha Giroux, sophomore education  major, says that she thinks online dating can work for some, but personally, cannot see it for herself.

“It works for some people, but personally I can never do it. I think it’s weird; I feel like you can’t just meet someone online and date. I think you need face to face interaction.”

Like Soto, Giroux suggests bringing a friend, but also expresses how hesitant she is to the idea of young people dating online.

“I just think it’s an unsafe thing to do, because you don’t know what could happen. You don’t know if that person is lying or what the person can or cannot do. It’s different when a group of friends introduce you to someone than when you meet someone online and go on a blind date, then you have no idea.”