We live in a busy world which spends it’s every waking minute devouring our spare time. The challenge is delegating our time between what we want to do, and what we have to do. The things we want to do, such as meet new people, usually come in second place.

Along with time constraints, meeting new people can have a whole other set of challenges. Perhaps you’re tired of “the bars”. Maybe you keep finding people with mixed qualities (some you like, some you don’t). In many cases, some people just have no clue where to even start.

Say hello to Online Dating. The internet has given us the ability to tackle all of these challenges and more. Dating websites have quite literally changed every tradition we ever had, and they have never been more prominent than right NOW.

If the concept of meeting and dating people on the internet is new to you, then congratulations on coming out of your coma. You have a lot of catching up to do. It’s time to step up and join the ranks of people all over the world who are enjoying these great advantages.

Currently there are 237,168,545 people in North America online. That’s a whopping 70.9% of the entire population. It is estimated that 1 in 10 adults online are visiting dating websites and free personals. This means you have roughly 23.7 million people to choose from while you’re venturing thru sites looking for matches. Wow…that’s a lot of people. I don’t think your local classified ads can beat that.

As the dating online concept continues to grow, so has the content and variety. This is largely due to the views that are taken on the subject. We may not know which ideas are going to expand into the future at the time of their creation (Ideas such as the internet itself.) But one thing is certain; the ones that do tend to evolve do so thru moderate acceptance.

It is the gradual acceptance of an idea that enables it to continue to grow and gain popularity. Once upon a time, online daters did so in secret. Maybe too embarrassed to tell their friends and family what they’ve been up to. Not anymore. Movies like You’ve Got Mail are a thing of the past. Online dating is largely more accepted by the greater public and practiced in more open methods.

Who’s dating online now-a-days you might ask? Everyone. Everyone from all walks of life, religions, races, and sexual preferences. Ages are ranging from teenagers to baby-boomers. Relationships are more successful and more available online than ever before. People now look forward to telling their friends they have a date from a great new site they found. It really is an exciting time.

Keeping all this in mind, online dating is still dating, meaning you should treat it no different. You may in fact want to treat it with a little more caution than usual. Just by watching the news at night, you should know that there are a lot of creeps out there. Don’t be an easy target. Do some research and read up on the do’s and don’ts of internet dating. An experience is more enjoyable when it’s an educated experience.

In 2008, online dating is really going to be taking growth pills. We’re seeing more and more talk of virtual dating and the technology is starting to get strong enough to take us there. Most sites have options for cameras now and live videos are a hit. Getting to know someone thru live video feed is a giant leap and has created more sites with more opportunities.

Dating sites that support this live video are becoming more preferred. It gives people the ability to meet in the privacy of their own individual homes, making your first date a pretty comfortable experience. If you decide you don’t like each other, your date is over with the click of a button. “Oops…I think my camera just malfunctioned”. Hopefully you won’t be hearing that too often.

So is dating on the internet the right concept for you? I don’t see why not. After all, I’m sure your neighbors are with the numbers I’ve shown. Good luck and happy dating out there.