Role of Social Networks in Web Dating

Lately various social networks became extremely popular among internet users. And except communicating with their friends, people started to use them for web dating as well. They have become so popular, that in many offices the access to such sites is blocked. First of all, such popularity is connected with a social prejudice attached to the dating sites. When people meet a partner this way, they generally conceal this and pretend to their friends that they have met at some party or bar. Two out of every five people use or have used online dating service, but how many of your friends ever confessed they did? Even spending half of your day using social networks, You can always say You were talking with your ex-classmates living abroad. Another big attraction is the profile itself. Usually it is very detailed to facilitate the search among other users. Once You are "friends" with someone- You get access to a great database of his biography and private life. Telephone, address, personal pictures, diaries....what not? Of course, it is not obligatory by the site policy to fill in all the forms, but most of the users think it's quite safe to make all the details visible to their friends. Furthermore, the chances that this profile belongs to other person are much lower that at the dating sites. This fact also attracts many people to social networks. The structure of most social networks resembles a tree - You can see the friends of your friends and so on. So You can meet people who are common friends with someone who You know very well. This also decreases the probability to meet someone dangerous. And we can't but mention that social networks are free unlike most of good dating sites. Isn't money the best motivation?

I think all this may lead to the situation when any social network is no longer a social network for networking, or friendship but a new gateway to online dating. Very soon all the social networks may turn into dating website.