Reality Bites: How To Take Your Relationship Offline

Reality bites. And sometimes it bites when we least expect it. Many people think that online dating is removed from real life, from reality. Wrong. Behind each username and IP Address lies a real person with real emotions and feelings. Behind every digitalised character are true words that come from the heart. This is what makes online dating beautiful. You open up yourself to a world of possibilities.

However, sometimes, reality becomes clouded because of the nature of online dating. And so, for those people who have already taken a bit of a trip away from reality in online dating, here's a reality check for you.

Reality Check: A fulfilling and complete relationship can't be found online.

No matter how we look at it, online dating should only be a means to an end. To truly have a real, long-lasting relationship, you will need to take the relationship offline from online. Of course, if your loved one is overseas, working abroad, or serving outside the country, then that's a different matter. Why? Because you started your relationship with each other, making eye contact, and touching each other. In short, being with each other physically. It's just that circumstances force you to be apart for the meantime, and the only way to keep the relationship going is through online means.

However, if your relationship started online, then of course, you'd have to think of a face-to-face meeting in the future if you truly feel that the other person online is special. Your relationship cannot grow and last with only e-mails, chats, and phone calls to feed your emotions. To fully connect with someone, and to truly test if your bonds and chemistry really do exist, then you'd need to meet up with each other. Keep in mind that internet dating is only the short means to an end.

Now before doing that, take another reality check: your perception of your online match largely comes from your imagination.

Half of what you think you "know" about your online match stems from your active imagination. Whether it is conscious or not, your brain constructs an imaginary image of the people that you meet online. Why is this? Because your brain needs to construct and feel the gaps that the person you have speaking to has left online. Of course, the profile is already a big help and so are pictures. However, because we humans are largely visual creatures, we feel in the gaps with our imagination, like how their voice sounds, how they walk, how they laugh, how tall they are, and how they would react when they get together with you. Most of this happens with you being conscious of it.

So before your brain comes up with a totally perfect person, you have to meet face-to-face. Do not allow things to get too serious while online. It's always advisable to keep an online relationship short, say, only for as long as you get to know the person as to allow yourself to go on a traditional date with them. Once you're in that date, you'd be surprised at how different that person is from the person that you imagined them to be. This may be for the better or the worse. But for whatever it is, your online relationship has moved up a level.