In many cultural traditions, dating is usually arranged by a third party. He could be a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a classmate or an officemate. He can be a professional matchmaker, too. For example, I have a friend, and he likes to meet a new friend, specifically a girl, with the intention that if they will get along well with each other, and he will learn to like and love her, she can be his girlfriend in the end. I will arrange a meeting place and time for them to see and know each other. That is dating then! However, nowadays, we already have on-line dating. We need not see each other personally to know each other. There are a lot of websites to visit to in order for us to find friends who can be our future partners in life. We can communicate and know each other better through the use of internet. There is also what we call as group dating. We go out together as a group and enjoy each other’s company. This form of dating is the safest and most fun way of dating.

The cultural tradition though, is less harmful than the on-line dating because we know the person who is introducing to us our dates. Unlike in the internet that we are truly blind with each other. At least, in the cultural tradition, we have an idea of the person’s background being introduced to us. If we choose on-line dating, we must just be careful with the person we are trying to date with. It is important for us to determine how physically and emotionally safe we are with the person we barely know. We must be sure that the person we are communicating in the internet is really the person he says he is. This is because, there are persons who are not being honest with their identity in the internet. They sometimes change their names, their age and most especially their faces. So before you get to meet the person you are trying to befriend in the internet, you must make sure that he is someone who can really be trusted. Most of all, you should not be easily in love with the person you are talking within the internet. You got to know him first and meet him personally. There’s nothing better that seeing and staying with the person to know him well.