People represent themselves accurately on the internet, right? No. No, they don’t. But that doesn’t stop people from dating, or at least from looking for a hookup, online. Your options here are many: you can look for one-night stand with a bot on Craigslist Casual Encounters, an affair on Ashley Madison, or a good, wholesome partner on sites like ChristianMingle. If you try to find a mate on one of these sites, just remember to adjust his or her stats according to the following formula (derived from the infographic below):

• For Males: + 2 lbs, – 1/2 inch, + 6 months
• For Females: + 8.5 lbs, + 1.5 years

Despite the mistruths out there, people are flocking to the internet to find a match (just like they’re flocking here to do everything else). But are online dating services really a good place to meet people? I won’t tell you what to think. You can read and look at pictures and analyze information (that’s what we do on the internet — to varying degrees). This here infographic goes pretty in-depth on the relative merits and pitfalls on online dating.

The things that caught my eye: people online seem to be in a hurry to tie the not. According to the graphic, people who meet online date an average of 18.5 months before getting hitched. That’s nearly two years less than people who met “in the real world.” Another compelling feature of this graph is its analysis of dating sites’ compatibility algorithms. The long and short of it: those algorithms don’t often calculate for the longevity and evolution of relationships. And I can see why they don’t. It’s hard to do.

According to this chart, there are millions of lonely people out there, and the law of averages suggests you’re most likely going to meet fairly stable, lonely people out there — people whose most grievous offenses don’t go beyond fudging their numbers a little bit or not mentioning that three-room collection of Cabbage Patch Kids. But if you do opt to catch one of those other fish via the ‘Net, please be careful and do your due diligence. Guard your personal info and mete it out slowly as you develop trust and rapport with each other, and verify your potential date’s data (address, phone number, name, etc.) before agreeing to meet in person. If something doesn’t add up (excluding maybe a little lie about their weight), proceed with caution. You’re probably a wonderful person, who’s maybe a little shy or too busy to go out and mingle. You owe it to yourself and all of us to be safe.

And if you don’t want to try a dating site, try gaming. Maybe you’ll fall in love with someone you just pwned in Call of Duty.

[Source: DailyInfographics. Image Source: We Know Memes]