The technological progress has changed the way we connect and communicate with others and dating is no exception. Having a mobile phone means that we can always be reached, social media helps people to get to know us before we have ever met, and international dating sites give us an opportunity to widen the love search worldwide.
Video chat
Modern technologies made it possible to video chat with people you meet online. This important feature can be used not only for face-to-face-like meeting with someone who lives overseas, but also for filtering out not serious and scam-like users. Many international couples met online and fell in love during video chat date in Skype and WhatsApp. Video chatting as almost like a real life meeting, many of them say. With the only difference that you cannot touch each other.
Video chatting can be hard for some people because being on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat. It also means that people need to learn more to process non-verbal signs such as facial gestures, voice
tone and pitch, and body language which consumes a lot of resources to pay more attention to these. Plus, these is another challenge with… silence. Silence usually creates a natural rhythm during a real-life conversation, but not in a video call which makes people feel uncomfortable.
Digital footprints
When you post or look at anything online, you leave a trail of information that can be called your digital footprints.
Advanced online dating users know a lot about using the searching engines for finding bits of information about people they are interested in. It’s a great way of learning someone you like without asking questions. First, you take her/his picture and use Google Image search for finding other places where this picture has been used. There are many other services for doing the picture search as well. You can also Google this person’s name + date of birth + place of work and other details you’ve learned during your conversation (or as posted in her/his online dating profile).
Don’t forget about Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Ask the person you’ve met on a dating site to exchange your Facebook/Instagram links and you will be surprised on how much can be learned from the social media resources.
The thing you should worry about is that someone who found your online dating profile interesting can do the same search on you. That’s why it’s always recommended to be careful with the personal contact information you put in your dating profile. Digital footprints mean you never have complete privacy online.
Matchmaking algorithms
The number of online dating services around the web is somewhere around 8000. More competition pushes the website owners to use different strategies to make their services look more attractive for the potential users.
Have you ever come across the ‘Zodiac compatibility dating sites’ or ‘single parents dating sites’? There are also a lot of websites which will find your perfect match in the database of users after you fill out their special dating questionnaire.
No matter how many people believe in zodiac love compatibility and ready to start a relationship with a Taurus or Pisces only, don’t let the algorithm make the final choice. Choosing the right potential partner is only your responsibility and there is no magical instrument the software developers can invent to make two people fall in love just because the system said they match.
On the other hand, I’ve heard many success stories from people who used the matchmaking algorithms wisely and it really helped them quickly find the right person to start a relationship with. Whether it’s an element of luck, or a real help of modern dating technologies, my best friend is now in a relationship with a guy she met online (and the dating website they met on showed their compatibility level as 93%).
Online translation
International online dating would would never be so popular if not for the online translation systems which made it possible for people all over the world to communicate without any lingual barriers.
The only thing you need to keep in mind while having an online chat with foreigner is that some words in another language can have many (sometimes illogical) meanings. Like in Russian the combination of words “в душе” can be translated like “in the shower” and “in my soul”. So if you receive a message from a Russian woman saying that she is “romantic in the shower”, don’t laugh too much. What she wanted to say in that she’s got a romantic soul, that’s it.
Sending money, flowers and gifts
Thanks to the modern technologies you can now order a taxi, book a table in the restaurant, send money/flowers/gifts to another person (even if this person lives in a different city or even country) with a few taps of your finger. Many online dating users willingly spend money on surprising their potential partners on special occasions like birthday, Valentines Day, etc.
There is only one important rule when it comes to spending your money on online dating: do not send any financial support to people you have never met in person due to the constantly growing number of online dating scammers.
Whether we like it or not, but thanks to the modern dating technologies, it’s more likely to meet someone online nowadays than going on a blind date. So don’t be blinded by the new reality. Use it wisely and get successful in your love search!
