Online profiles are a place where we inadvertently reveal a lot of basic truths about who we wish we were – and not who we really are
I confess it: I am always writing one-liners about myself online. I have spent 5 internet-literate years defining myself to strangers on the internet (dating sites, forums, blogs, chat rooms) through pithy, articulate sentences carefully constructed to present myself as a paragon of humanity. From Bebo through to MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and beyond, I’ve used the whole range of tricks from flattering camera angles to (tragically) writing easily Google-able ‘inspirational quotes’ in my profile in my attempts to appear like a rounded and likeable individual. Let's face it, I've even outright lied. I probably shouldn't admit this, then, but it comes as no surprise to me that the results of a recent survey reveal that 57 per cent of people have lied on their online dating profiles.

Internet dating has come a long way in the 15 years since You’ve Got Mail. Once the sole preserve of people who exist entirely on the internet for one reason or another, it has steadily and stealthily infiltrated the lives of Normal People. No longer are your recommended matches likely to be living in their parent’s basement at 42, nor do most of them have a profile picture that’s an awkwardly posed topless self in the bathroom mirror, socks visibly pulled up towards greying underwear.

Moving on, internet dating has experienced something of a renaissance recently; it’s even been claimed that one in five marriages across the world started online. So if that’s the case and it’s popular and successful, what’s the problem? Why does my dating profile lie dormant? I've never met up with anyone off the back of a dating site.
Do you lie on your online dating profile?