Many individuals have taken an alternative route to dating worldwide.

The traditional “high school sweethearts” and “college buddies” are much harder to find in a social media surrounded life such as this one.

Online dating has become the “hip” way of finding true love. This computer-based love may be true to some, but could there be a possibility that those met online are only fascinating due to a false identity?

Since 2006, about 17 percent of married couples have met by using an online dating site.

However, the possibility of finding a soul mate amongst the estimated 40 million people who have tried online dating is ridiculous, and more or less exhausting.

Including the fact that 10 percent of online dating users are sex offenders, many would agree that finding true love through one click of a mouse is nearly impossible.

Sites such as E-Harmony.com, in which 20 million people participate, as well as Match.com in which 15 million people participate, are just a few of the estimated 5,000 dating sites worldwide.

Out of the total number of single people who date online, 33 percent manage to find a partner fit to be in a relationship with.

However, online dating advertisements that these companies put out there fail to include the fact that it is more than likely, through the process of seeking out “the one,” that many participants will meet a creep at their own risk.

A perfect example of this could be seen in the show “Catfish,” hosted by Nev Schulman, who was a victim of an online relationship hoax. Through the show, he helps online daters meet the partner that they have fallen in love with through the Internet.

Though online dating seems to have its ups and downs, it is highly impossible that the person who seems to be a pure example of true love is actually a true hoax.