Do you think it's possible to fall in love with someone you've never met?

You can’t be sure if that person is really like what they appear to be like over the internet, but I think it is possible to fall in love with their apparent personality/charisma.
It’s very easy to fall in love with someone who doesn’t exist.

If I fell in love with my husband the first night I met him, then I suppose it’s entirely possible to fall in love with someone on the internet. I’ve made a few fabulous friends on the internet, having never met them face to face. One of them is like a sister to me now.

Lust, maybe. That has happened to me a few times. When we finally got together, we did the deed, kept in contact,afterwards, but the distance killed any chance of a relationship.

Just through online chatting, I’d say it’s a no for me.
I think it would be possible through Skype or the telephone.
Personally I need to look a person in the eyes to make a connection.

Nope.

On the internet, you may fall in love with their words and contents, but it takes eye to eye contact and one on one chemistry, to make it work in person.

Some people get together through the net, so I guess so. @MilkyWay makes an excellent point though. There may be strong feelings associated with a person you never met that might not be quite love or may be indeed, but I do believe you’d need physical contact to strengthen and nurture said love.

I think it’s possible to fall in love with the image you have of the person, but I think that to fall in love with someone, really and truly, you have to know them, their ins and outs, what it’s like to be with them, tolerate them, they tolerate you, you learn their bad habits and good, and vice versa.

If you can, watch the HBO documentary “Catfish.” It’s about a love affair that happens through internet and phone calls, then what happens when one of the parties shows up on the other’s doorstep to meet them in person. Totally mind-blowing. Makes you realize that someone you have never met may not be who you think they are at all. It’s on HBO this month. As I said, it’s a documentary so it’s not like it has actors in it, it’s real.

I’m in love with Tina Fey. Never met her.

Absolutely.

Johnny Depp… [:

If both people are being honest and there is no deceit involved; I think it is absolutely possible to start a loving, longlasting relationship. You eventually have to meet and get to know each other from a physical standpoint. Not necessarily sexual, but to see the other’s physical attributes, mannerism, sparkle, body language and so forth.

I can’t imagine ever falling in love with someone before I had a sniff.

…and as @gailcalled says, their smell.

I’m currently living with the girl I met on the internet, there is even talk of getting married. For us it was possible. When I came home from work I needed to see her online to feel at home. I left the highest paying job I have ever had and changed countries for her.

So far so good.

Aww, I’m happy for you @poisonedantidote. It is like the olden days of penpals and postcard exchange clubs. Many a long and good marriage was found in those days by actually getting to know someone’s thoughts and beliefs before they jumped into… um… a relationship.

Nah.

No. You can’t fall in love with someone without knowing them because there’s nothing to love.

No, it is not possible. You are merely infatuated with the idea of love.

Real love involves spending time with someone, doing things together, seeing when and how she laughs, or shakes her hair out of her eyes. Knowing how she smells.

I think you can fall in love incompletely on line. To make it complete, you have to spend a little time with them to know that you love all the little things about them to accept them completely. Smoking, chewing gum, burping, a persistently dripping nose, cracking knuckles, etc. Stuff that could drive you nuts.

It’s possible but at some point you need to meet. Otherwise… trying to maintain it, especially over a long distance, becomes hard and/or painful for at least one of those involved. Then it’s goodbye Halcyon Days.

Yes. From my experience its absolutely possible. The one person I truly fell for I met online. While our relationship has taken on many forms, I have learned more about love from loving that person for almost nine years now then any other personal relationship I’ve ever had.

We met in person fours years after we first met. And that really only solidified our feelings.

We’ve pretty much settled on this unconditional love/bond thing. Time and distance and whatever be damned. Its always there. There are no doubts and I honestly could go the rest of my life not seeing or speaking to him again and know its still there.

The desire to “be with” each other has long since passed, but the love between us remains. I’ve always had a difficult time trying to describe this relationship to people.

No. Because love requires smell.

@mattbrowne so people with anosmia are incapable of love?

@mattbrowne Yes, that is the scientific explanation, but science only goes some of the way and who knows if science is the truth. But I can see what you mean.

I think we’ve had a similar discussion before. The human brain is capable of substituting sensory input. Blind people can expand their auditory and tactile sense significantly. I would expect that people with anosmia expand their other senses as well. For love the tactile sense might become key.

However people without any loss of their senses will heavily rely on the olfactory sense to turn attraction into love. People need to meet in person in my opinion. The Internet can certainly be a first important step. It’s possible to get to know people by exchanging letters or emails.

When I like a man, I need to like his scent, also (and I will be smelling him often!).

Several years ago a friend of mine met a guy on the internet. She fell “deeply in love” with him. I started noticing things he said didn’t add up and pointed them out to her. She explained it all away. The story is too long to go into but the end of it is this 36 year old guy turned out to be 66 years old, had no teeth and didn’t bother with false teeth, smelled very bad because he never took a shower and lived on a house boat. She was devastated because the guy she fell in love with did not exist.

I’m sure it can but I think it depends on the people and where they on the internet they meet. Both my brothers met their wives on the internet. I think there are more stories like the one @chyna talked about than true love stories, though.
I think it’s too easy to be deceitful on the internet, and in order for love to be complete and fulfilled you have to meet in real life. Otherwise you’re just in love with an imagine of who you want them to be.

@chyna: Check out “Catfish” on HBO. Exactly similar to what you’re talking about!