I think most of the men, and all of the women who turn to the internet for dating, are screwed up individuals. Women more so than men, because some men are just shy. Women can typically go out, and the men will approach them, so I suspect that the women on these sites are more damaged than the men.
Why would any socially healthy person have to meet someone online? I meet plent of women through the course of everyday life, and surely if I were single and looking, 1 or 2 of them would be dating potential. I am naturally suspicious of anyone having trouble finding dates. There must be a reason.
Fantastic question, and you probably already know the answer.
In some societies, you had people who were experts in arranging the introduction of people. Everything was very "prim and proper", and the two individuals were formally introduced.
Today, that formal introduction does not exist.
So, as humans, we are forced to "wing it" and do our best.
I have speech and hearing impairments. It's hard to get a date when you can't even say hello.
LOL! If you don't manage to post stuff that pisses a lot of folks off once in awhile, you aren't trying hard enough :)
I think most of the men, and all of the women who turn to the internet for dating, are screwed up individuals
Well, I think most folks are pretty "screwed up". Online dating lets you meet more people, so even if more internet daters are screwed up, because you're meeting more people, you're also meeting more "normal" ones. Hopefully.
Why would any socially healthy person have to meet someone online?
As for myself (who is certainly "socially unhealthy)", meeting people at work is out of the question because to start with, there aren't many women there, and I really don't think it's wise to get involved with someone at work. All of my hobbies (shooting, reading, hiking, travelling, working around the house) are solitary hobbies, so meeting women in the course of engaging in my hobbies isn't going to happen. I don't attend church, so I'm not going to meet anyone there. So I decided to try the online dating thing.
As for why others use it, I think it's a reflection of a changing society. Sexual harassment laws make it imprudent to date (or even flirt) with people at work. People are much more mobile than they were 20 years ago. As such, they don't establish roots in an area that allows them to find dates by "networking". And I think the general quality of people has declined over the last decade or so. So it's natural that folks would explore other avenues for dating.
I am naturally suspicious of anyone having trouble finding dates. There must be a reason.
The reason is that most chicks are either sluts, sperm bandits, statists, leftists, gold diggers, or psychos.