Computer Love

To some Southern University students, using sites such as E-Harmony, Match.com or even Myspace, Facebook and Blackplanet, to find a potential mate is a hopeless act of last resort.
“I think one must be really desperate to use the internet to find a date,” said Kyesha Hawkins, a sophomore computer science major from Maringouin.
Hawkins’ view on online dating is one shared by 29 percent of adult internet users in America, according to a 2006 survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. In addition, 66 percent of Americans agree with senior marketing major Aldren Thornton, of Plaquemine, who considers online dating dangerous because a person can never really be sure who he or she is talking to.
For Marquita Mouton, a senior elementary education major from Ville Platte, who began dating her husband, Anthony Mouton through the popular social site Blackplanet, the sentiments of Hawkins and Thornton didn’t mean anything to her.
“Though we first met each other at the Special Olympics,” Mouton said. “We absolutely didn’t talk to each other. He just saw the nametag on my shirt and started sending me messages.”
The Moutons are a representation of the 17 percent of online daters the Life Project survey said have entered long-term committed relationships, or married their online dating partners.
According to Mouton, she said she wasn’t really interested in him because of the online thing, but “we kept writing to each other for around six months until he asked to meet me,” she said.
Mouton said once they started dating, her husband would drive about an hour from Lafayette to see her regularly.
The couple dated for a year until Mouton said Anthony proposed to her on New Year’s Eve in 2005. They were later married in December the following year. Mouton said her husband later moved to Dallas for work.
“The thing that makes this whole ordeal interesting is before we started dating, he sent me a message saying he was going to marry me,” Mouton said. “I thought he was crazy, but for some reason I kept talking to him.”
Currently, Mouton is finishing up her last semester at Southern while her husband waits for her in their recently constructed home.
Mouton said prayer is what has helped her cope with the struggle of a long-distance relationship.
“There is someone out there for everyone,” she said. “It’s ok to go on those sites, yet you can’t go looking for love.”