When speaking of my personal perception of those, who go in for online dating, I must honestly admit: it would be more accurate to define it as negative, than positive. And, I also must be frank with myself here; this negative view is largely based on the stereotypical social attitude, which I, to a large degree, inherited as a more or less typical member of the society. I still continue to see these people as losers, as those, who are unable to find a partner in real life, as a sort of addicts, to a point. Because this is just like with the addiction, when a person simply cannot fire their imagination without stimulating it with something really heavy. This is also synthetic.
There are three types of online daters I can think of. At least, I believe, these three will be the most typical. The first one is a typical loser, a person, who is forced to look for a match online simple because he or she believes that they have got no chance to find such in real life. Such a person will have multiple psychological complexes, will be critical about their knowledge, skills, intellect, looks, and salary – whatever there is to be unsatisfied with. However instead of improving whatever makes them unhappy they will look for easier ways around. Two other categories are less negatively comprehended by me. These are firstly people, who are very much busy at work and simply do not have time to start new acquaintances. But then it is doubtful, whether they will have enough time for the family, once they find a partner. I think, they simply leave this question unattended. Lastly, it is the category of people, who are objectively discriminated against by our society and realistically evaluate their chances for finding a partner in real world, thus wish to broaden their horizons by participating in online dating communities. I hate to say this, but people with disabilities are still oftentimes inadequately comprehended by our highly civilized society.

There must have been three major factors, which contributed into the formation of this view of online dating. The first and the prevalent one are, certainly, stereotypes, as I have mentioned above. We are all used to think, that an online dater is a loser. But the other two categories derive from my personal experience. I tried online dating once, and it was a failure, and I have never considered it as a solution for my own self. And this is, probably, another factor, which largely contributed into my negative perception of online dating. Lastly, I know many people, who practice online dating, and this is one more factor, which contributes into my view of this social phenomenon.

Having examined my perception of online dating I arrive at a conclusion that it must be very far from objectiveness. I don’t think my image of an online dater is accurate. Firstly this is because I do realize, that my perception of online daters, my attitude to them is largely based on the social stereotype which has not yet been defeated inside me. On the other hand I must admit that I lack fundamental knowledge on the issue. I do have a few acquaintances, who do online dating, their experience is different and varies from largely positive to absolutely negative. But I do not believe that the range of my acquaintances and friends is representative in the sociological understanding. And therefore I do not believe my comprehension and perception of online dating and the people who do online dating is anywhere accurate. However the belief is really strong.