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EDITORIAL

Online Dating Or Traditional Dating, The Conundrum?

April 11th, 2019

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The strengths of online dating

Online Dating or Traditional Face to Face Dating? That has been the conundrum for so many people in recent years. So in an attempt to answer this thorny question we looked at the strengths and weaknesses of both to try to give a very honest appraisal of what to look for and which way to go.

Online Dating was launched in a blaze of glory in 1995 in the USA and in 1998 in the UK, with the launch of match.com. Because very few households had computers in those days it was maybe a slow start but dating via the internet gradually gained a foothold and although in the early part of the new millennium, certainly tabloid newspapers often made a mockery of people meeting online, the steady march of online dating gained momentum over the years, until it became something that most singles had at least tried – some 16 million of them in the UK and around 25% of the population.

It’s actually a simple concept with you using the online dating site’s software to create your own ‘D.I.Y. Profile’, to upload your photographs and begin trawling through thousands of similar profiles (millions with the bigger sites) to find someone you feel attracted to and that you feel an affinity with.

It has some big advantages, in that because you are doing almost all of the work, it is much cheaper than other more traditional options, after all you are really just renting the software and doing everything else yourself, with very little training or guidance on what to do or how to use it and then you’re searching through huge numbers of other ‘amateur’ profiles, written by others like yourself.

The weaknesses of online dating

Without a doubt it can work and many have found success in this way, it is also often great value, sometimes even free, but there is little support or help and you may well be looking at some very poor, uninteresting, even boring, often inaccurate profiles (anyone can be anything or anybody they choose on the internet) and on occasions photographs that are hugely out of date or even not of the person in question. And believe me that happens an awful lot.

The disadvantages of online dating are often the quality and accuracy of the profiles and photographs as highlighted, but for many that’s actually a secondary problem, as it’s the sheer exposure of your profile and photographs that is the biggest problem for many on a busy and highly public website, with friends, parents, relatives, work colleagues, neighbours and people that you’d be really embarrassed to share things with, being able to see your most intimate thoughts, hopes and aspirations live on the internet. Which is of course something that many of us could never contemplate, if we thought it through clearly enough!

Online dating related crime

The other consideration that people ought to of course be aware of, is that online dating crime, is now one of the fastest growing crime categories in the UK in 2019 and that online dating related fraud is the biggest problem of all and is now running at more than £100,000,000 per annum. It’s also often types of crime that are particularly nasty and upsetting, violent crime, including rape and murder, but also, blackmail and extortion, terribly unpleasant and upsetting experiences that genuine, entirely innocent people have been subjected to, from these despicable criminals and gangs targeting people who are genuinely looking for love – a truly sad state of affairs.

Traditional ‘face to face’ dating – a credible alternative

So what is the alternative? Well maybe its looking back to ‘traditional’ dating agencies that held sway before the march of the online dating companies that could be the answer. After all this type of dating activity has been around in the UK, since the early 1700’s and has served the test of time. Companies such as The County Register, Drawing Down the Moon, Attractive Partners and Avenues have been around in the UK for many years longer than their online equivalents and along with Ultimate Attraction (we were launched in 2014, as the upmarket, more sophisticated, little sister of Attractive Partners), offer that in depth, comprehensive, attention to detail, personal job for discerning clients that the online dating companies could only ever dream of.

So if personally interviewing every single prospective client, interviewing them face to face, carefully vetting each and every one of them prior to offering membership, building them a professional profile, with excellent quality photographs, but keeping it discreet and highly confidential and then providing a service second to none is your type of approach, then that traditional, face to face approach to dating may well be for you.

Our service keeps confidentiality and discretion right at the forefront of all we do and the service is built around working with a professional Personal Matchmaker, who is an expert in this field and would guide and mentor you through the process throughout your membership – which would typically be over a full year.

GETTING IN TOUCH

If that sounds like the sort of solution to meeting a high quality partner that you had been hoping for, then we’d love to talk to you and tell you more about Ultimate Attraction Ltd and why we believe that our service not only is more discreet and personal, but also would bring you better results, then we’d love to hear from you.

There is never any sort of obligation or sales pressure with Ultimate Attraction either, you can speak freely and without any compulsion to buy from us, to one of our Personal Matchmakers or Membership Advisers and a simple phone call can get you talking to someone, who would be happy to talk you through your options and how we could help. Our free phone number is 0800 644 4190 and we are free to talk almost everyday between 9am and 9pm or please complete our contact form and we will call you within 24 working hours. The choice is yours.