NEWSDAY – Dec 28 – Way back in the 1990s, looking for love via the Internet was something many daters kept secret. Today we may have entered the golden age of "idating".. 7000 adults married within the past five years, according to a survey by Match.com. It found that one in six marriages are now between people who met through online dating. Match.com is 15 years old this year, and CEO Greg Blatt said that "now it's the exception not to be looking for a mate online." There are also less well publicized downsides, said Dr. Dennis Lin, a sex therapist. "Some people start losing real-life social skills when they rely too much on online dating," he said. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWSDAY
Mark Brooks: They still need real-life social skills to connect in real-life. But online (a.k.a. computer mediated) communications skills are very different from face-to-face. iDaters can appear super-attractive and smart online, and suck in real-life. That's why webcam based dating sites like Woome and Speedate and the original cam dating site Webdate, help bridge the divide. (Full Disclosure: Courtland Brooks worked with Webdate in 2005)