Growing Online Dating Relationships

by Susan Pierce

Just like with regular real-world relationships, online relationships have to be tended and to be allowed to grow over time. Here are a few quick growing hints:

1. Take Time and Make Time: Does your online partner email you often? Do you do the same? Neglecting to get in touch is considered not nice, so treat each other's time respectfully. If that respect is lacking, it could mean that it is time to move on.

2. Communication Needs to "Feel" Right For Both of You: If one of you is appears to be too desirous about meeting up, for instance, that can create bad feelings. Therefore, please, don't hurry things; learn to take your time and engender trust in each other.

3. Respect Each Other's Privacy: Don't share the other person's email addresses or digital photos with your friends online, for example; especially if your online date sent you the information in confidence.

4. Share Special Online and Offline Enjoyable Times: when online: send online greeting cards; links to favourite sites to upload digital photos of your favourite pet or car; download music and video clips; post on favourite forums of interest. When offline: if you're exchanging addresses or post office boxes, send printed greeting cards and postcards and/or small items from your area (like a key chain with your state tree).

5. Share Recipes: People get tired of just discussing the weather, so a very popular subject to take refuge in is food. Sharing information about favourite foods and recipes will break the ice and even help create a friendship; talk about your culinary skills, or the lack thereof, and preferences. Search online for free recipes to share and take photos of your culinary creations and share them with your online date too.

6. Bidding at Auctions: Ebay auctions sell just about any and everything. Therefore, look about and enter searches like the dates you were in high school. Share nostalgic photos of old games and toys and TV shows from when you were young or when your parents or grandparents were little.

Online dating should be an educational and fun experience. So, go on, learn more about each other and have fun while youre doing it! Take a cyber-stroll down ol' memory lane together and see what's cookin'. Tend your online friendship, water it with care and over time it can sprout and grow.