Marriages that began with a click on an Internet profile are increasingly common. Because adults today tend to have a limited social world, at least in terms of old-fashioned face-to-face contact. We bank and order groceries online; we send texts rather than talk. Forget going to the bar, honey; get thee to thy laptop. Yes indeed, the relationships and sexuality expert found herself single after a long-term relationship ended go figure. How the heck was I going to meet men? I live in a small community where it seems like all of the eligible bachelors are my patients! So with a great deal of skepticism, I tried the online dating thing. I had some fun, met some good men, had a few lousy dates-and, most importantly, I survived. So here is my Internet dating advice from the front lines. You have nothing to lose by meeting a guy for an hour in a public place and having a conversation. Will I like him? Well, then you get to practise being rejected by a reject. It happens to everyone. In my case, after a flurry of fun emails, I met a wine importer for dinner. We were excited enough even before we had our first meeting that he bought Pearl Jam tickets for the anticipated second. But on that first date, clearly I did not match the mental image he had formed during our emails ouch. That is the joy of being a grown-up, not a teenager. We can choose to get to know more than one man at a time. And he will, too. Decide that you will go on one date each with 10 different men. If you separate the concept of dating from the concept of , you will relax, have more fun, and be more open to being surprised. As for me, after a number of dates from popular Internet dating sites, I tried a Buddhist dating site. There are specialized services for all sorts these days, and Buddhism is an integral part of who I am. You may want to try a site for single parents, organic farmers, or whatever your fancy. Through it, I met a man I ended up dating for two years, a travel writer who invited me to Tahiti, Venice and Hawaii. The moral of the story is that, whether the date was good, bad or ugly, I still had fun. Each date, I got to practise meeting a stranger and getting over the initial inevitable awkward moments, then settle into the fascinating process of learning about someone new. I got good at dating. And you will, too.