Whenever people ask, "how did you and your boyfriend meet?", and I tell them on the internet, they tend to get really judgmental.
For years, online relationships have been deemed as dangerous, "not real", invalid, and a set up for heartbreak.
Coming from the generation of technology, I strongly disagree with that opinion. There are so many people in this world... How can everyone find their soulmate face to face coincidentally?
My boyfriend and I, Steven, met in 2016 on the app Instagram. We were both sixteen years old at the time, and we were both completely clueless about where each other lived.
We both live in Georgia, but where I live and where he lives are two completely different worlds. He lives in a suburban town with a million gas stations, a Walmart just two minutes down the road, and an assortment of different fast food chains.
I live in a small town where we have two places to eat, a Dollar General, and Walmart is fifteen minutes away.
If it wasn't for the internet, how would we have met? Where would we be now if it wasn't for today's technology? Our paths would have never crossed if it wasn't for the world wide web.
Online relationships are more common than you think. The number of young adults who use online dating has roughly tripled from ten percent in 2013 to twenty-seven percent today, according to Pew Research.
And not only that. According to Dating News, nearly fifty million people have attempted online dating. That's close to the number of single people in the world, which is estimated to be around fifty-five million.
So why is online dating seen as a negative thing? There have been numerous times where people have not ended up to be who they said they are, however, that can easily be avoided. I made sure to not only have numerous phone calls with my boyfriend, but also use Skype and Facetime in order to see his face.
The internet led me to finding the love of my life, even if that can be labeled as a negative thing.
