I believe that one day the Internet is going to control the world (if it doesn’t already). These days a man, from the comfort of his desk chair, can buy socks or a house, book flights, have cyber-sex then confess his sins, and find a soul mate online.

It is the latter that I find most disturbing as it seems to resemble George Orwell’s ‘1984,’ where people are mundane, loveless and turn to Big Brother for all the answers in their personal lives.

Sites like match.com allow thousands of Americans to fill out personality profiles so they may find someone who not only meets their particular physical requirements, but also has similar interests and neuroses. You may find someone, for instance, that also likes taking long walks on the beach and collecting spoons from every state, and shares your irrational fear of candle wax.

Besides the fact that this concept depresses me beyond belief, it also says a lot about our society and the ways that it’s changing. When people can get everything with the click of a button, why not your soul mate? People are turning to the computer gods to match them up with the love of their life instead of going out into the real world and trying to court someone. Meeting people is hard and sometimes humiliating, but it’s part of the whole process. It is what shapes you and helps you grow so you can realize what you really want in another person.

In the age of instant gratification and ADD, however, people seem to have no patience for any feeling less than ecstasy and turn to the Internet to fix the love problems in their lives. We are evolving into a species that will never leave our houses, ad why should we? When we can make them the perfect temperature, arrange a lineup of all our favorite TV shows and do all our shopping through our laptops.

Furthermore, I don’t even think sites like match.com that robotically match up similar people will necessarily lead to a happy life full of rainbows and sunshine. It takes more than a couple of $50-surveys to find the love of your life. I would think it takes time, friendship and hardships. In our society, we are very much into the idea of ‘getting to the chase,’ yet it’s sad that people feel that way when it comes to finding someone special.

Micol Zweig is a junior English major. She sends her columns in late because she has too much fun on the weekends.