Do you prefer meeting people online or IRL?

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What is your way of meeting potential romantic partners? Do you prefer the anonymity of the Internet, or the honesty and intimacy of real-life interaction? Personaly, I prefer meeting people in real life, because then I know what I'm getting. No hooking up with a 10 and finding out she's actually a 2. No hooking up with a 20-year-old and finding out she's actually 14. I used to be faced with a dilemma, because I couldn't meet girls in real life due to my approach anxiety, but I've mostly overcome that anxiety now.

Last edited by CryptoNerd on 26 Apr 2016, 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well I don't typically 'meet' new people IRL unless I am with someone else or a group where someone else more initiates it than me. So I came to like the approach of meeting someone online and than IRL, I cant decide whether I have feelings for someone or not over the internet(I've tried, there's been a couple guys I knew online that I thought maybe I had a thing for and thought of moving out to stay with them as already being in a relationship)...but I never could actually bring myself to do such a thing without not having met them in person.

Really I am not the best at initial face to face interaction, so online dating was a work around for me...since I could just put a profile up talk about what I like and figured if someone had interest and we talked a little online before meeting it would make the meet up/date less awkward. But I've always had to meet in person to decide if I want to pursue a relationship or not.

Agreed. You shouldn't allow yourself to become attached to someone you've never met in real life, no matter how appealing their online profile is. For all you know, your online SO might not actually exist.

I would want to meet them IRL first, and then I could use the Internet for keeping the contact. I could also find out more about a girl or play games with her on social media.

Online dating is overrated.

I can't stand the internet to build connections to other people.

I can't even have online friends.

It makes me feel absolutely nothing emotional-wise.

Text on a screen will never compare to real, human emotions.

The most I can have with the internet is acquaintances, or using the internet to maintain real-life friendships.

It's hard enough for me to find pleasure with online friendships, let alone online dating.

I find it absolutely tedious and boring.

At least real-life small talk, you can see their interactions, you can see their gesture, body language, facial expressions, their smile, hear their laughter.

Text on a screen is boring and dull, and emoticons aren't going to help that much.

I actually wish i could find any interest in online dating, at all, even slightly, but no matter how hard I try I simply cannot.

I probably come across as just as boring to female's I try to chat to on online dating sites, but I don't give a sh*t.

Rant over.

Online dating is most certainly overrated.

I don't even struggle with chatting to girls, I just don't care.

I know I prefer meeting who I am online than IRL.

i can chat on dating site and then meet real

Real life. I don't trust people online to be who they claim to be.

I don't trust or know anything about people in rl.
At least online I can read about them and if their single and in few cases actually talk to them.

I met all 3 of my girlfriends on online forums. I never had any luck but bad trying to get women offline. Lots put me in the dreaded "just friends" category & a couple got mad at me & made work more difficult for me because we worked in the same place thou in different departments. I also lived in a hard-core conservative Catholic area & I'm a socialist/progressive & a Secular Humanist so it was very hard for me to meet people who share the same values as me so lots of the women I tried asking out offline probably would of broken up with me anyways over it. I also couldn't drive because of low vision & lived in a rural area with no public transportation so I was limited to where my parents would bring me & they hated being my chauffeur so I couldn't really go to many places just for the sake of meeting people.

I would prefer to meet people in person, but I have the self confidence of a shy 14 year old. I'm no better online (it's taken me over two hours to decide to post this response).

I've realized that I'm not getting any younger and I'm sure as hell not getting any prettier, and if I don't put a concentrated effort in right now, I'm almost assured to live out the remainder of my life alone.

So I've made a conscious choice to start posting on this forum every day in a attempt to start to speak to new people, even if it's just random babbling on the Internet.

I have had one relationship before. We met in person but then I moved and our relationship became long distance. It actually was just a friendship until a few months after my move. The only reason we got talking in the first place was because we were sort of forced to for a class, we were assigned partners. I prefer meeting people online because I can actually sort of manage that.

Every sexual partner that I've been with has been through meeting online. I find it easier to communicate and be upfront in an online setting than in person. Especially if you're meeting via hookup sites, because everyone knows what everyone is there for. Whereas meeting a random person in real life, you have to feel your way around in terms of what the other person wants or doesn't want.

I agree with this. I mean, anyone can lie about things and pretend to be someone they aren't whether it's online or IRL.

I think I might prefer online because it might be easier for me to get to know them. I don't think I would want to meet them on dating sites though because it seems like there are some sketchy people on them.

The only girlfriends I've had have been online. It's better I think, because it's easier to meet people with similar interests online. There's simply a larger amount of people online than you're likely to meet in person, and therefore a higher probability that you'll find someone you like.

I treat online relationships and friendships the same as I would in person. I'm cautious, of course, of people who aren't genuine, but once a connection is established, it's as real as anything. Why wouldn't it be? After all, you're still talking to a real person.