According to readwriteweb.com, a massive 46% of survey respondents found dating ads to be the most annoying out of Facebook’s advertisements, with educational and job ads, at 24.6%, games at 13.5, and movies and TV shows at 8.7%. Food and beverage adverts were the most acceptable category amongst the survey of ad haters; just over 7%. So what seems to be the problem?

Well, according to the people at readwriteweb.com, it’s Facebook’s access to a user’s age, sexual preference and location which the user usually finds to be invasive, intrusive and somewhat creepy. Few people need reminding of their long-term singledom, or worse still, that their relationship status has recently been downgraded to single.

And as the article continues, the real issue finally rears its ugly head. It’s the stigmatism of online dating. Nobody wants to reveal their dating activities when they are online, and fewer still are prepared to admit that their best method for finding love is more chat room than champagne room. This prompted a thought. So what? So what if a person uses their computer to get a few pixels on their bed post, to go from networking to nookie, to get Java and get jiggy? So what?

This then materialised into a Facebook status on my personal account: ‘Is there still a stigma around online dating?’ I rubbed my hands together rather smugly expecting to be inundated with flurries of nos and proud stories of those who had discovered online love- as many of my friends had. So believe my shock (met with a highly raised eyebrow) when I saw one notification after waiting nearly a whole day.

‘Elaborate…’ I wrote back, irritated by such a half-hearted response. So she did.

‘Because of all the ugly weirdos that still insist on posting fake profiles… It’s the whole fact you can pretend to be anything and the person will never know! It’s like sometimes you need realness so that it’s not fake.’

Hands up those of you who have never met a liar… I don’t even need an answer. We all know that we have and they were about as real as the backspace button on a keyboard. I would personally put the limited responses down to embarrassment as opposed to large numbers of online dating virgins among my Facebook friends.

With figures from Mashable.com that suggest the online dating industry to be worth up to a billion dollars more than the pornography industry, I am inclined to disagree. I’m sure the 20million members on E-Harmony.com  and the 15 million members on Match.com would also take an opposing stance.

Surely if we allow sites like Facebook to take up our time, what’s the problem with using it to find someone that could take up our time in ways far more fun than an impersonal poke?