Social sites on the Internet, along with online dating services, are quickly becoming a common place for meeting others and searching for a date or the perfect someone. The online personals business is a booming industry, with numbers in the millions and growing every day.
Sources say the age group of 30 and under is the fastest growing segment of the online social market, but these services have members in all age groups, even seniors.
The generation of young adults who grew up with the Internet is now coming of dating age and they are taking to the Internet and using instant messaging to connect with friends, the opposite sex and new aquaintances the way their parents used to gravitate to social mixers and other “conventional” methods of meeting others.
Almost everyone knows of MySpace.com, a social Web site, where you can have your own personalized site featuring photos, music clips and a network of friends.
There has been a major cultural shift in popularity of social sites and online dating.
Now people seek out online services because of the difficulty of meeting others through conventional methods and because of the fast pace of modern lifestyles, which does not allow for much time spent on seeking out a mate.
Yahoo! Personals is one of the most popular and most visited online dating services and offers a vast database of members, helpful content and advice on designing a personals profile.
PerfectMatch.com is another relationship Web site designed to help people look for a perfect mate. Another very popular service site is eHarmony.com, which is said to be one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet.
They advertise to match you up with someone on the very deepest levels for finding the perfect mate.
With all of this activity in cyberspace come some chances of sexual predators and breaches of privacy to your personal information.
The Yahoo! Personals Web site offers a word on safety. They assure the site will not disclose your full name, your personal e-mail address, your contact information, or personal preferences.
They do state, in order to actually date, you must give up some anonymity, but you get the chance to meet others online.
“Ultimately, safe dating requires good judgment and only you can be responsible for that,” according to Yahoo! Personals.
In an attempt to secure young individuals who attend Katy Independent School District, a new campus security system is included in the bond package.
The system would use a state-of-the-art identification system for all visitors who try to gain access to campuses and a new digital surveillance camera.
“This is a Web-based product which checks the sex offender database by entering the visitors name and date of birth,” said Mark Hopkins, Director of Public Safety for the Katy Independent School District Police Department. “The system would alert principals and the police department of a registered sex offender attempting to visit a campus.”
Security measures should be on the forefront for all individuals who engage in online social Web sites and personals dating.
So be careful and have fun in cyberspace.
|