There are undoubtedly some of you reading this who have had a bad experience with it yourself and it’s true that online dating has something of a mixed reputation. All too often, people either leave out less than desirable information about themselves or simply make things up in order to appear more attractive to potential dates.

For instance, let’s take “Sam.” He’s 50, 5’ tall, weighs 275 lbs and earns so little that he’s still living with his parents. It doesn’t seem likely that he’d want to just come out with this information. When we put ourselves out there online, we obviously want to make ourselves look as good as possible. However, what we shouldn’t do is to look at what we’ve entered and find that we don’t even recognize ourselves there – and some people even go so far as to post another person’s picture in order to give themselves a better chance of catching someone’s eye.

If you’ve done this, you’re not alone. In fact, a great many other people are doing exactly the same thing. For instance, “Sara, 26, blonde, good looking and very intelligent” may be anything but. Sure, it’s funny now, but you won’t be laughing when you’re on the receiving end of this kind of deceit.

At this point, it’s understandable that you’re wondering if it’s even worth trying online dating if there’s this much deception going on. Don’t lose hope. Internet dating works just fine as long as people are honest about themselves and quite often, people admire those who are brave enough to lay it all out there, good and bad alike.

If you’re willing to show the world who you really are, wonderful things can happen. Whether it’s meeting your partner through an online dating site, making friends through these sites (and remember, these friends may introduce you to someone who you end up dating) or just building your confidence, there is value here. Just because there are people out there who aren’t being truthful doesn’t mean that you should just sit at home – or pretend to be someone else and have a strictly virtual dating life.

There are still a lot of honest, straightforward people out there who are willing to be open and make themselves vulnerable in the hopes of meeting someone. Be one of them; if you’re not one of these people already, try to change and don’t miss out on all of the opportunities that are out there waiting for you.