East Tennessean

Issue date: 12/8/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Rachel Steffey Blake Clark and Rachel Steffey, a successful Internet couple, met through Yahoo Chats and have been dating for three years.

Forget the awkward first dates and the nervous laughter about jokes that just are not that funny. More and more people are having that first connection in cyberland and forming long term relationships from them.
Daniel and Christina Leach have been married for six years, after meeting each other on a message board in 1995. The 25-year-old sophomore art majors are content together in their Johnson City apartment. "We were just sort of casual friends for several years," Christina Leach said.
With the advent of Yahoo Chats, personals, Facebook and sites such as Match.com, e-dating has become increasingly popular over the last few years. A Google search of the term "Internet dating" shows 2,430,000 hits including books like "Meet me ... Don't delete me ..." or sites such as lovestory.com where you can read successful Internet love stories. There are links to studies by scholars and articles that give tips on online love etiquette.
According to Nielsen/NetRatings the Internet is now the third most popular way to get a date, coming in behind traditional ways such as meeting through friends, pubs or clubs and work.
Engineering major, Rachel Steffey agrees.
Steffey, 25, met fiancé, Blake Clark, 23, through Yahoo Chats. They have been dating for three years.
"Everyone wants to find their soul mate and using the Internet is easy," she said, noting that she was a veteran Internet-dater for years before.
"I just happened to get lucky," Steffey said. "It's kind of like shopping for a car, just shopping for a boyfriend or a husband instead."
She said that she had reservations each time and ended up somehow just trusting her instincts.
Clark, however, was a newbie.
"It was my absolute first time. She was the very first person that I sent an IM [instant message]," he said of meeting his wife-to-be on the Internet.
For these singles the myths of obese, psycho-stalker, pedophiles typing lewd lines rapidly under pseudonyms have been replaced by men and women seeking relationships, but for many there are still reservations.
Vashaun Tucker, 25, met his girlfriend of three years on the Internet. He described her as perfect after meeting her in person, but admits that he still has some doubts about the Internet especially about the physical aspects.
"It's more of a risk, getting on the Internet because the person that's on the Internet may really be the opposite sex than they say they are," Tucker said. "But if I see you in person then I'll know," he said.
mmIt is not only physical appearance that concerns many surfers.

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