In all your years of hooking up and breaking up, your soul mate may be a click away.

Online dating is revolutionizing the standard way of meeting someone.

“I was a single parent and I didn’t go out or have a social life,” said Lori Alexander, 31, a freshman majoring in Communications.

Alexander said her online adventure started in a chat room and moved to a dating site.

People actually marry people they meet online. Alexander met her husband on DreamMates.com and has been with him for five years.

Match.com and E-Harmony.com offer to be your matchmaker for a price. Free online dating services like DreamMates.com are also available. Sites like Match.com approve their applicants before they are allowed to receive emails from other people using the site. Most free sites do not have this filtering process, which allows more people into the site. Younger adults tend to use social networking sites, like Myspace.com or Facebook.com, to meet friends or find dates.

Services like Zoosk and Are You Interested? are based on physical appearance rather than personality. Users click the photos they like and hope they return the favor.

Perla Lopez, 20, a sophomore Education Major, found her boyfriend on Myspace.com.

“We’ve been dating for almost a month now, and everything’s going good,” Lopez said, “So far, it’s been a good experience.”

On the other hand, people don’t even have to leave the house to find a mate. They don’t have to put on their best suit or even comb their hair. Online dating gives people a chance to expose their personality first.

Another pro of online dating is that a larger variety of partners are present to choose from. You may look for a partner all over the world, if you like. Jason Mundine, 25, sophomore Network Administration major, met someone on Facebook.com who lives 200 miles away.

“Overall, it was okay,” Mundine said. “I don’t think it beats meeting up with actual people and interacting. I mean there’s just something there you can’t connect with in the very , so it doesn’t compare to real life.”

With that said, the advantages of online dating could be gaining a partner in yobeginningur life or even hitting the jackpot and finding the love of your life. The sites have made it possible to pick and choose almost every detail of your ideal date with a simple click of the mouse.

Just like traditional dating, most people are so consumed by the allure of finding that “special someone” that they often meet with someone they know absolutely nothing about. Desperate people are quick to love everything about a perfect stranger, and whether you meet that stranger online or not, negative consequences are possible.

Safety is important when dating anyone and with online dating, precautions must be taken.

“I think I was pretty safe about how I went about it,” Alexander said. “If I did decided to meet somebody after I talked to them for a while or exchanged phone numbers, it was always in a public place where I knew people. I’d give my best friend his address, the phone number, his cell phone number, a time I was to call by, and if I didn’t call by a certain time, to call me and stuff like that.”

Not only can people be a physical threat, but they can also emotionally abuse you. Precautions should also be taken to prevent stalkers and people who lie about who they are.

Guadalupe Mendez, 21, a sophomore Communications major, has met two or three women on Myspace.com, and he had about three or four month long relationships with each of them.

“There were certain things that came out later on in the relationship that I didn’t know,” said Mendez. “It would have been cool if [the women online] were legit with everything, but online, you can’t tell if they are lying or not.”

Unlike meeting in person, facial expressions, tones of voice and body language are absent. This leaves online daters with only a word on a computer screen, to try and guess if what was typed is the truth or not.

“You can be whoever you want online, and at the same time be more open,” said Mendez.

Whether you meet online or meet at school, the mall or at a party, dating is a time to explore potential life partners and have some fun in the process.