Guide to safely meeting people online

© maron (Fotolia) Pretty young girl 70705
© maron (Fotolia)
How to start the process
Take it easy

Meeting new online friends is easy but that is just the first step. At the beginning, keep it natural and simple. Rather than rushing or being hasty, it is in your best interests as well as your acquaintances, to savour the process as you go.

How to communicate

It is true that you all meet with the intention of possible dating down the road and it is also true that you are strangers to begin with.

So start communicating via text online at the beginning through chat-rooms (if that is how you started off). If this feels like a friend, in time, you can add this person to your instant messenger (IM) and communicate more personally. At this point, you may be emailing each other.

Evolving naturally

If you let things evolve naturally or organically, you will either be going out together or you will have moved on to other friends.

Imagine jumping at the opportunity to date too soon, you can be meeting all kinds of people and as such, wasting your time and draining your energy. You have the choice to realise this now of after experiencing it for yourself. Why not choose the former?
Do you want to date this person?
Do you share interests?

This is the easiest way to tell if you are going to get along with each other. In fact, the more uncommon the interest, the better. Or, you can be sharing quite a number of interests. Basically, the interests take you both along and (if you stop to think about it) you can feel the synchronicity.

Are you honest with each other?

Honesty is much more than avoiding from lying. Someone who can’t be honest even with himself has issues and this person can prove to be a challenge to deal with. This doesn’t mean that he is lying to himself but that there are things that he refuse or can’t face up to.