This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Ottawa chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

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Love is in the air, or should we say, love is in the media. Valentine’s Day is coming up to the joy of some and to the dread of others. Whatever your position on this holiday is, you cannot escape the heart candies in the grocery stores, the never-ending commercials (and movies) about love, nor the constant reminder of what your friend will be doing with their lovebird on this love-filled day.

If you are a single lady trying to find your significant other who will put a ring on that finger (in the near, or far, future), do not give up on mankind just yet.

New Years resolutions are still fresh, but maybe they are growing a little bit fuzzy in the back of your mind. Perhaps you swore off dating to focus on school, or on the contrary, promised yourself you’ll finally find the right person for you this year.

Well, if you are on the lookout for a handsome lad or lass, you are in luck. Since New Year resolutions and Valentine’s Day are so close together, dating websites often experience an economic boost during the months of January and February. The number of subscriptions increases significantly because of the hype people experience with a fresh, new start.

This means that this is the time of the year when there are the most subscribers on dating websites. In other words, now is the time to make an account if you dare put your faith in the hands (or wires?) of technology.

Many can be skeptical of these methods since they are very unconventional for our age. However, more and more dating websites have been aiming at our age group by making them specifically for young adults, such as Zoosk, Kiwibox and Plenty of Fish.

However, one concern is that we do not really know these people and meeting strangers can always be quite dangerous.

In the summer of 2012, Marc Chouinard and Christopher Gimmer launched their dating website, www.classmatecatch.com specifically for students. This means that if you want to be a user, you need to have a student email account. This guarantees that you will be meeting other students like yourself. Currently, they cater to more than 12 universities across Ontario including Carleton, University of Ottawa, Queen’s, York, Ryerson and McMaster.

I made my account last semester and though I have yet to find my soul mate, you do meet some pretty interesting people. It is flirting on a whole other level! You will experience every way a person can approach you online. The length can go from half a sentence to a novel. Of course, you’ll always have this one person who will smartly ask you: DTF?

Please ignore.

Otherwise, when filling out your profile information, be mysterious. This means you do not tell your life story or how many hamsters you’ve owned. Leave it to their imagination, saying something in the likes of: Guess what I would do if I won the lottery. This gives them the opportunity to answer this if they want to start a conversation with you. It makes the contacting step less intimidating for them and you’ll seem like an easily approachable girl.

Usernames are something you are going to laugh at a lot, but be sure yours isn’t as embarrassing. Keep it simple and true to you. You could simply put your first name, but if you want it to be original, be sure it doesn’t scream ‘booty call’ like the name hotgirlrider. Incorporate something that represents you and don’t make it too complicated, for example, ‘mustlovedogs’ or ‘MrsPresident’.

As for pictures, do not put a group picture because it will be very confusing to know who you actually are. Put a maximum of three pictures in colour and make sure we can see you clearly. The last thing you want is to disappoint the other person when you finally meet with them.

Also, when talking about yourself over the Internet, do not be too specific. For example, do not mention what residence you are in or if you are alone for a long period of time.

This being said, it is always important to take precautionary steps when meeting the cyber lover. You should always meet in a public setting like a coffee shop or a restaurant and always notify a friend so they know your whereabouts and whom you are with.

Finally, whether you do choose to tryout a dating website or not, the biggest piece of advice I can offer you is to take risks. The One will not appear on your front porch, but they will acknowledge you if you say hi. Do not be scared to approach them because you just never know what might happen.

Bibliography & picture credits:

http://www.smallbusinesswebhostings.com/tag/online-dating-website

https://www.facebook.com/classmatecatch/timeline?filter=3

http://laughingpics.com/online-dating-fail/

http://beinganshul.blogspot.ca/2012/03/online-dating-fatal-attraction-or.html

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love

Finding your CyberMate

We wanna slide into your DMs