When I started blogging in 2002, it wasn't normal for bloggers to meet each other in person like they do now. Writing online was becoming more popular, but there weren't regular local blogger meet-ups, and meeting another blogger one-on-one didn't happen very often, either. In fact, it was probably a few years into blogging before I met another blogger in person.

That's all changed now, and it's the same for online dating. In the past, people used to write emails to each other, and talk on the phone, before it was considered acceptable to meet in person. Now we tend to want to meet someone as quickly as possible -- to see the real person instead of just the pictures and description, to see if there's a spark.

Not only that, our avenues for meeting people on the internet are evolving. Now that there's no longer a stigma attached to saying that you met someone through an online dating site (remember when people would lie and say that they met through some other method?), it's also no longer strange to say that you met someone through some other form of social media.

I've talked about how I met a fair amount of people through Match.com in the last year, but over the past month I've dated a guy that I met via Twitter, and I also made plans to hang out with a guy that I've primarily talked to via Facebook. (Meaning, we'd met in person only once, months ago. He left a comment on a photo I posted, and after sending some messages back and forth we decided to meet for drinks.) And over the course of a few years, up until last summer, I went out with a few guys that I met through MySpace.com (ah, those social media sites of old).

When I talk about meeting new people from a dating perspective, though, I still kind of feel like I have to point out that I'm not meeting all these guys because I'm opposed to being with one particular person. But it is true that I go out more often when I'm not seeing just one guy, and I'm introduced to new people that I wouldn't have met otherwise, and I end up going to new places and eating at restaurants that I've never been to before. (Raw oysters at the Fish Market in Old Town Alexandria at 11pm on a Saturday night? Why, yes, please.)

I have a habit of posting details about my various escapades on my Twitter and Facebook profiles, and recently one of my aunts left this comment:

Look at you Zan...you have it so good: the freedom to go and be with whomever you choose, so many friends, dates, dinners, travel. Don't give any of this up by hooking up with just one man. [These things] add to the rainbow you live under.

"The rainbow you live under." Isn't that a great phrase? It's a nice thought, at least, even though -- of course -- my life isn't always rainbows and glitter and smiles and fun. But my life is pretty darn good, especially in the past few years since I discovered how much I enjoy meeting new people.

I like that our attitudes have changed and that it's now acceptable to meet people through multiple technological avenues. And it really makes me wonder what we'll be using ten years from now.

Do you have a story about meeting someone through the use of technology?

Related Reading:

Lalawag: How to Get Laid With Twitter

Twitter is probably the best way to hook up. Old-school methods of getting to know someone through their blogs and Facebook profiles is a large investment as far as time goes -- and time is a luxury not all of us have. With Twitter, you can find and engage hundreds of people in your network.

Huffington Post: Is Internet Dating the Death of Romance?

[M]y main reason for resisting the urge to internet date is my feeling that it drains romance of all its...romance. Even worse, it turns romance into a commodity. When you post photos of yourself and wax witty on the "five things you can't live without" or "your most embarrassing moment," you effectively reinvent yourself as a product -- to be reviewed, assessed for quality, and either purchased or passed over.

Ryane at The Platinum Years talks about the advantages of being single.

I never have to manage someone else's expectations; I never have to compromise on food choices or who controls the TV remote; I never have to put-up with bad moods (except my own!) or contrariness for no good god-damn reason other than that is simply the mood of the day. I would never pretend that not having to deal with these realities is reason enough to never want to get married or be in a relationship; I know they aren't. Idiosyncracies are part of the fun of a relationship. I'm merely realizing that for every thing I feel I don't have as a single woman, I have something equally as wonderful as just me, Ryane alone.

(Contributing editor Zandria blogs at Zandria.us.)