Some people rate intelligence over physical appearance but probably for most of us physical appearance governs our approach towards another person. This creates confusion in people's mind whether what actually matters more! Another issue to take into consideration is a person's personality and sex-appeal. Regarding physical appearance, people in the real world tend to be so conscious about it that they don't feel confident to express their feelings and thoughts, and that keeps them away from people. This has been going on for years, but now people have found a way out. They have an existence in the real world but they have also a virtual world to explore, where they can create a new identity that might or might not be their true selves and then try to get attention in their process to meet new people. Mediums are often social networking sites online dating sites.

Generally people associate online dating with teenagers only but this medium is quite popular among well qualified professionals, and you might even come across a person who might be in his/her 40s, 50s or even 60s at times. There are times when people feel lonely and need to talk to someone else, and decide to use the Internet to look for it. Online dating can lead you to an environment that in not completely free of vulgarity, liars and even con artists. You need to take care from bad persons who will try to deceive you in order to get your money. There will be always few people who will try to take advantage of people's desires to end their loneliness in life. Depending on the site you chose to find your date, finding a real person who is looking for the same as you may be a very hard and desapointing experience. Try to figure out the kind of people you are looking for and go for him/her with persistence and caution. You need to understand that nothing can be said until you meet the person in real, and keeping low expectations is always better than expecting too much from a person you have never met.
Physical appearance is only one factor that explains the popularity of online dating. There are a lot more reasons that may explain why so many people go online to look for a date. Other popular reasons to try online dating may include:
a) The possibility to search specific characteristics you desire in your partner: age, hair color, height, ethnicity, humor sense, etc.
b) Many people are not fond of common places for meeting new people, like pubs and clubs.
c) Some persons are too shy to approach a guy/girl they could be interested in.
Whatever the reason is for so many people trying online dating, it seems this social revolution is not going to reach an end soon. The current fact is that everyday many people use online dating or social networks to find real partners for friendship, dating and even marriage.
For a free online dating site in USA and Canada visit http://www.datinglocalsingles.com or http://www.datingswarm.co.uk
if you live in UK or Ireland.