Is it Possible to Fall in Love Online?

The Internet has made it exceptionally easy to connect with people and it therefore comes as no surprise that so many people have tried online dating and built relationships online. There are dating and friendship sites; chat rooms and social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, where you can get in contact with people you otherwise wouldn’t have met. However, if you’ve never met in real life and your only interaction is online, is the relationship you have likely to be on the same level as the relationships you have in your real life? Is it possible to chat with someone online and to fall in love with them, despite having never met?

Some people believe it is possible. After all, it is a rather romantic notion – the idea that you can meet your ‘soul mate’ online, someone you share your innermost thoughts and beliefs with; someone who accepts you the way you are; someone who makes you feel good about yourself. Yet, the trouble is it’s much easier to be open with a stranger when you’re typing away at a computer. It is not quite the same as having a face-to-face conversation and getting to know someone in person. There is much more opportunity to lie or exaggerate when you’re not in a position to meet up with the other individual.

In a real-life situation, you are immediately aware of whether there is any chemistry between you, which isn’t true when you’ve only conducted a relationship online. Even if you’re both entirely honest with one another, there will undoubtedly be aspects of your personality you highlight, and other aspects you downplay, whether consciously or not. If you only spend an hour or two using instant messenger to communicate or merely send emails on a daily basis, how much can you really find out about a person? At least if you know each other in real life, you will have a better chance to see what they are truly like.

Of course, it can feel as though you’re in love when you can chat via webcam or whilst using instant messenger for hours on end, but, again, you can be quite selective in what you reveal about yourself. Besides, even though you may appear to have chemistry online, there is no guarantee this is going to translate into chemistry when you actually meet. Obviously, when you’re in love, certain chemical reactions take place, and you’re unlikely to experience these when you can’t see, touch or smell the other person. Your personalities may click, but it could turn out that you are not attracted to each other when you meet and that what you have is more of a friendship than romantic.

It might be possible to find someone who you can imagine falling in love with online, but the reality is that you can’t really gauge how you feel about an individual until you have met; had a face-to-face conversation and got to know each other in person.