Why Couples Should Be Honest About Meeting Online

If you're alive in the year 2014 and know anyone who is single, chances are you know people who online date. You have probably even done it yourself. And yet, everyone still seems to attach a very negative stigma to having met someone online. Like my brother, who says Tinder is "for losers", or the handful of girlfriends I have who use OKCupid and have intense anxiety about where they're going to tell people they met their boyfriend, if they happen to meet their boyfriend online. Despite digital culture being, well...culture as we know it, online dating still has a dark cloud hanging over it in terms of how acceptable it is to do and admit you do.

I blame the creeps. To every person who's ever sent a message using an online dating site or app, asking for a quick bang or to meet at a hotel room or what size bra someone wears: It's your fault people think online dating is weird. If online dating was just full of lovely people wanting to meet and chat and be nice, then no one would think twice about it. Because when you think about it, a dating site is just like going to a bar: You're scanning a selection of people for one you might potentially be able to fall in love with. You're just doing it from the comfort of your own home, and in a much more well-researched manner. So technically, it's BETTER than meeting someone in a social setting. So here are six reasons why couples have met online should be honest about it.

1. Because You Did

The best reason to be honest about something is because it's true. Actually, that's pretty much the definition of honesty.

2. Because Everyone is Doing It

My mum used to say "If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it too?" And I'd say "Yes, because if I didn't then I'd have no friends." Everyone is or has online dated. As such, everyone has the responsibility to immediately get over being embarrassed about it.

3. Because Love Conquers All

If you're in love with someone, that's the most important part of the story. "We met online" literally means nothing in the face of love. You could say, "We met when I pooped myself in the supermarket and it was really wet and he helped me clean it but he was vomiting the whole time," and if you're in love, that would be the cutest thing in the world.

4. Because You've Got Mail

If it's good enough for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, then it's good enough for you. Also, You've Got Mail is disgustingly romantic.

5. Because Who Cares What Other People Think

Other people are stupid anyway. Own who you are, your life, and your decisions. All those things are YOURS because they don't belong to anyone else. So stuff 'em.

6. Because Why Wouldn't You?

I have yet to hear a truly compelling reason why people don't want to admit they met online. I mean, if you met in a kiddie porn forum then sure, you probably don't want to admit it and also shame on you, I hope your house gets raided by the FBI and you go to jail forever. Or maybe you come from an Amish family and your parents would disown you if they knew you used the Internet. But even for the Amish, there's Rumspringa. The moral of the story is: All of your reasons for not telling people you met your partner online are way stupider than admitting you met online.

Images: Warner Bros.; Giphy (6)