Reality Bites: How To Take Your Relationship Offline

Reality bites. Yes. And most of the time, reality bites down really, really hard. Many people consider online dating to not be connected to reality. Wrong. Behind each username is a real person with real feelings and emotions, having hope that they would find their matches online. 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 stopped looking into reality while on online dating, then 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, touching each other. In short, being with each other with each other's physical presence. 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, you have to take another reality check: your perception of your online match mostly comes from what you imagine them to be.

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 even happens without you being too conscious of it.

So before your brain comes up with a totally perfect person, you have to meet face-to-face. Don't allow things to get TOO serious online. It's always advisable to keep the online relationship short, say, 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. Your relationship has to move up to a new level.

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