Despite its popularity, online dating continues to get a bad rap. Why is it that more people are joining dating websites, but many still find they don’t get the desired results? Well lucky for us, a new study came out that tells us even more about how bad it is on the InterWebs. The whole thing leaves people wondering whether the promise of online dating matches the reality. Even with all the buzz, the disappointment can feel oddly personal.

Loveawake has revealed that 1 out of 10 users are scammers. 1 out of 3 women who meet men online have sex after the first encounter, and 4 out of 5 did not use protection. Men tend to lie about age, height, and income while women lie about weight, physical build, and age. Oh, and the average age of the online dater is 42, not 22. That is a little depressing. The numbers are enough to make anyone suspicious. Still, people keep logging back in and hoping the next profile will be different

Any of us who have online dated can tell you it gets frustrating. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a profile and craft a good email, let alone line up dates to see if there’s chemistry. People don’t look like their pictures, or they lie about their weight and height, and there is often no connection at all. Then the guy moves on, or the woman never responds, and it makes the whole system feel unreliable. You can start to feel like the effort is bigger than the reward.

The reality is that online dating has given us more choice than we used to have through friends and family. Even so, too much choice can become counter-productive, especially in big cities where everyone keeps looking for something better. Still, online dating has moved the dating scene forward in many ways. You can date anytime you want, pre-screen people, and meet someone far away. Online dating is far from perfect, but I’m still glad it exists.