MERITS OF ONLINE MATRIMONIAL/MARRIAGES:
1. Huge Choice:
You can select from the wide variety of matrimonial profiles and not just the people you know. You can literally shortlist the suitable match based on education, religion, caste, salary, location, hobbies, and personality and even looks. Similarly you can post your profile and let others contact you in the same way. You can even include or exclude people with special circumstances like people with disabilities, divorce or widow. Because there are millions of profiles online the biggest advantage of finding a match online is undoubtedly "The Choice". Even if you were taking out your matrimonial advertisement in the newspaper, your voice is still restricted to the territory where that newspaper is circulated. Although it is a good idea to place your advertisement on internet and newspapers for maximum exposure.
2. Cheap Services:
Although in most of the online matrimonial / matchmaker sites the basic listing can be free but in order to start a real conversation between both the interested parties, you have to upgrade to a paid membership which is also quite cheap and is within a few hundred rupees. Therefore it is best to have a paid membership from the starting itself rather than having to upgrade it later on...
3. See picture / video:
In most arranged marriage proposals, people use to hesitate sending photos, even when they did attach a photo there was always a problem of getting back the photo if the proposal did not work out. Here you can just shortlist the profiles with pictures only.
DEMERITS OF ONLINE MATRIMONIAL / MARRIAGES:
1. Genuineness is questionable:
This is the biggest drawback when trying to find a life partner online. You have no idea how much truth a person has written. Everyone tries to polish their matrimonial biodata with lies and deception and many cases go too far in order to get the conversation started. On the other hand there is more truthful knowledge about the background of your possible bride/groom if you have met the person or if your friends or relatives know the person. False photographs, lies about salary and family background are not uncommon in online marriages.
2. Privacy:
Once something goes on internet, there is no guarantee how far all of it will go. In most cases it is not an issue; therefore refrain from providing any information which may be sensitive to you. Provide those details only which are sufficient to establish a contact with the other party.
3. High divorce rates: (Reference: in.news.yahoo.com/32/20080715/1072/ten-virtual-reality.html)
If your marriage was made online, there's a one in three chance that you will be sitting in front of a marriage counselor, say experts. Psychiatrists in the capital have recorded an increase in the number of married couples, who met in cyber space, seeking counseling. In Arranged marriages, the man and woman come from a similar background and therefore share the same views of marriage and family, the chance of divorcing due to irreconcilable differences is not as strong as in western cultures or online marriages.
4. Past history of a person:
There is no way to tell if the other guy (or girl) is really nice or not. Did he have too many affairs or for that matter even having one or not, whether the person is a heavy drinker or smoker etc. There rare cases where people have even tried to re-marry using these online websites. Making an opinion about a person and his family background within a few meetings or phone calls can be quite risky.
