The notion of Paris in spring conjures up romantic images for Americans: chance meetings at a café by the Louvre, walks down the Seine with leaves drifting in the wind downriver, kisses under the Eiffel Tower in the first hints of dusk. The possibility of romance born of a chance encounter, full of uncertain gestures and risky endeavors based wholly on vagaries of instinct, has often defined our idealizations of the je ne sais quoi of romantic love.

The modern alternative to a handholding stroll past the Champs d’Elysee is turning out to be a finger dance across a keyboard into the realm of online dating. Any willing single, or amorous bigamist, can search through virtually endless amounts of scanned pictures and crafted biographies to arrange a meeting with a like-minded stranger. The stigma once attached to those resorting to personal ads has turned into a fevered embrace of the dating possibilities of global access. And as with any new phenomenon, businesses have looked to capitalize on it. Once upon a time we were sold flowers and nice dinners to exchange—now we are sold one another.

I met my current girlfriend in the workplace. I watched her for months, slowly anticipating each meeting and feeling slightly feverish over each opportunity for conversation. Our first perfect date involved an impromptu walk alongside the Pacific Ocean and ended without a kiss as neither of us were sure whether we were two friends out for a walk or two lovers in the initial round of courtship. I was unaware that a dating revolution was even taking place.

Three years later and two months prior to now I took notice of a Match.com commercial. In the commercial a heterosexual couple are having dinner with the man’s parents when suddenly the couple confesses to the lies of their courtship, dismissing the myth of their meeting in Paris and admitting their courtship through Match.com. The couple is jubilant and giddy, seemingly expectant of a warm response from the parents. The father though looks disgusted, and the mother is left to utter, “What about Paris?” This clash leads to an interesting question: Is dating undergoing a true revolution, or have we just streamlined the shopping process?

One thing is for sure—businesses have flocked to the prospects of online dating with a frenzy. In April 2002 Match.com, currently one of the two largest online-dating service providers, reported a 195 percent increase in paid subscribers from the same quarter a year earlier. Match.com, owned by Ticketmaster, boasts over 8 million active users (though only 724,000 actual paying subscribers) and has invested substantial capital in the scientific study of human instincts and preferences, resulting in a Personal Attraction Test that will theoretically aid users in identifying their ideal mates. Instead of research into how consumers will purchase goods wrapped in a baby-blue hue, the efforts are turned towards whether consumers will “buy” the boy or girl wrapped in an olive sweater with a come-hither look and a love of sushi.

Once consumers proved that they would indeed come to the mountain, the mountain, through intense marketing, has come quickly to the consumers. Yahoo! sank its financial efforts into advertising on Oscar night, the best night of the year to grab viewer attention outside of the Super Bowl. The ad blitz is centered in the concept that Yahoo! Personals is a shining beacon of hope in a crowded, cynical dating darkness. The central catchword is “Believe,” as in “Believe that we are your salvation from a lonely life.” Jupiter Research estimates over $300 million in industry profits last year with a belief that this figure will more than double by 2007. Believe that if trends continue, this will only be the beginning of online dating being sold as desirable, soon to be absolutely necessary.

A group of MIT cognitive neuroscientists have used their time and effort to conduct experiments hopefully leading to a database intelligent enough to let us know the smirking girl with her head nodding slightly forward is showcasing the body language that should appeal to you. The Online Publishers Association has reported that Americans in 2002 spent $1.3 billion for subscription services. With numbers like that, why leave dating to the messy outcomes of chance? Dating has become big business, and the recognition of that profit potential, for a generation growing up in the wake of a comfortable embrace of technology and connectivity, has just begun. But what then about love?

As we adjust to the likelihood of unending advertising aimed at our dating desires, the equivalent of pop-up ads and spam, we’re left to ponder what we’re gaining and what we may be losing and whether love can find room inside the sales process. On the plus side of log-in love is that we can avoid the $40 in drinks, fruitless chitchat and game playing that come with some of our standard social rituals, which above all else, demand that we be out there in the world, looking at our potential breakfast partners eye to eye when we make the decision to try and seduce them. We’re also able to find that she reads Annie Dillard, favors creative lovemaking and plans on having a small family, before committing time to her just based on a sweet smile and an alluring body.

On the negative side, we are short-changing the notion that humans are social creatures and require a little of the chaos of bumping into strangers like random molecules. Most of us have experienced that flushed, racing feeling in our blood when we recognize that a flirtation is going well. Sometimes the best parts in meeting a person are the unspoken, uncertain promises that we may or may not get to test later on. Certainly, a good number of participators in the online meeting game may only wish for a sexual victory prize, instead of the white picket fence and 2.3 kids. My friend Alwyn recently used the online personals for that very reason. He ended up leaving his date before the expected conclusion because of a lack of what he termed “the thrill of the hunt.”

Obviously not everyone participates in online dating for sex alone, but as my friend’s experience suggests, treating dating, or sex, like a shopping trip through Amazon.com may trivialize the experience. The debate over ease vs. quality may only be particular to a limited consumer group. One drawback that may extend to everyone involved is the classic problem that dates back to the original personal ads in the local newspaper—accurate representation.

In the virtual realm new identities are crafted endlessly, and responsibility can end at the computer screen. The screen is a safety barrier. So, if you’re sitting back and contemplating what face you want to put forward in your personals bio, is it going to be the one that is grumpy in the morning with bad breath and a secret addiction to Freddie Prinze Jr. movies? Of course not. It’s going to be the movie-star you, the one that parties like a champion and still manages to hold intelligent discussion over soup in the winter. Your snarky online self isn’t taking his or her baggage with them.

By traditional dating mean, we all know that we rarely meet the “full package” of someone we’re dating in the first weeks and months, as we’re on our best behavior and still unsure of what reaction we’ll get to some of our more colorful eccentricities. There is always some misrepresentation in the opening frames of courtship, mainly due to the fact that we haven’t seen the whole movie yet. At the same time, generally we’ve claimed nothing, put none of ourselves in an ironclad guarantee. With online dating, however, your impending date has pretty much taken your claim to being the “King of Pain” to an imaginative conclusion. Either you’ll spend significant energy living up to your fictional rep, or you run the risk of coming off as a Holden Caulfield phony.

In the information age we know all about celebrities and the branding process. With companies actively encouraging us to brand ourselves, to identify with being a Yahoo! Personals member or a Match.com love seeker, how will we live up to the additional promises of our own marketing? The pressures of maintaining your new identity may fundamentally alter your dating experience, the enjoyment of which was the original goal anyway. This dating revolution may not only be televised…it may be prepared for delivery specifically to you. Paris surely still has its benefits though, as certain walks on the beach continually remind me.