Once upon a time, people usually met their future spouses in high school. Then came the practically mandatory four-year college degree, and people began deferring marriage until later and later and later. However, it is not strange for people to wait until their early thirties to marry if they marry at all. Unfortunately, meeting people is much more difficult when you aren't going to football games and rec-room parties, so enter the glorious age of online dating.

Because gone are the days when online dating was considered solely for losers (or worse!), the Internet is the ultimate singles bar, minus the noise, the drunks, and the high cost of all those unsavory hours. You also don't have to rely on your friends and family to introduce you to people they think would be perfect for you and who wouldn't be ideal for, well, anyone, which is why they're still single. Thanks to online dating membership sites, you don't have to rely on your friends and family to introduce you to people they think would be perfect for you and who wouldn't be ideal for, well, anyone, which is why they're still single.

But that is not the case with you. You're savvy, and you know that online dating allows you to connect with a lot more people in a lot less time than you could otherwise. So, Aunt Myrtle, you will find the person who is perfect for you. There are millions of fish in the sea, and online dating is an excellent way to separate the guppies from the sharks.

Because you must exercise caution when communicating with other singles online. Most people stretch the truth a little, and it takes some practice to figure out what to look out for online. In reality, online dating personal ads are similar to classified employment ads. That ad that says a company is looking for eager go-getters is looking for people willing to work 18 hours a day for low pay and even lower appreciation.

Many online dating advertisements follow the same pattern. Women are more likely to exaggerate their weight, while men are more likely to add a few inches to their height. Serious lies do occur, but not as frequently as you might think. Nowadays, most people seek more than just dates online; they want long-term relationships and use online dating sites to help them find them.

You may have a few mediocre dates with people you met online before meeting the man or woman of your dreams. It's not necessarily because there are more ho-hums involved in online dating than in conventional dating, but because the pool of dates for online dating is much larger, so you date more or have more chances to date more, and hey, that's a good thing, right?