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Why it's really possible to fall in love online
By Brenna Ehrlich, Special to CNN

Updated 1636 GMT (0036 HKT) February 14, 2013

Some experts say that by chatting online, potential lovers overlook superficial turnoffs and open up to each other more deeply.
Story highlights
Many couples who met online say they fell in love before they met in person
The Web enabled Notre Dame's Manti Te'o to fall for a woman who did not exist
Professor: "Online technology ... enables having a connection that is faster and more direct"
Maryland man: Meeting online let me ask questions that I would not have asked face to face
Jon's plane taxied to a gate at Los Angeles International Airport, and although he had been flying for 30 hours on a journey from South Asia to California, his heart pounded at the prospect of wrapping Katie, his fiancé-to-be, in a bear hug.

In a week and half, Jon would put his grandmother's diamond ring on Katie's finger and the ring would be woefully too big. The oversight was not due to thoughtlessness on his part, nor a mishap at the jeweler.

It was because Jon had never once held that hand in real life.

Katie, 24, is not a modern-day mail-order bride and Jon, 32, is not a moneyed lonely heart. The couple, who work as Christian missionaries and requested their last names not be published for security reasons, met online while she was in San Diego and he was on a mission in South Asia.

Two months prior to their October 2011 meeting in Los Angeles, Katie had sent Jon an e-mail, hoping to join his mission group. Jon, curious, had clicked through to her blog, which was replete with references to obscure devotional writers that he also admired. That initial contact led to months of e-mails and phone calls, costing Katie $600 in phone bills, culminating, at last, in their decision to meet in the flesh. Today the couple are happily married with a baby girl.



'Catfish' star: My heart was broken 02:17


Using faith to find a date 06:05
Their relationship may seem like an outlier at a time when the world is looking askance at online relationships. As we all learned last month, the Internet enabled Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o to fall for Lennay Kekua, a woman who does not exist. "Catfish," a popular new MTV series based on a movie by the same name, captures audiences with tales of online love that quickly devolve into lies.

And all over the Web, onlookers have been wondering: Is it possible to fall in love with someone you've never met?

How technology has changed romance

A fast connection‬

Despite the current atmosphere of distrust, falling in love sight unseen, often through the written word, has been happening for centuries. The Web has only made it easier. Some experts say communicating online before meeting IRL (that's In Real Life) can actually foster strong relationships by helping those with similar interests come together over great distances. Potential lovers overlook superficial turnoffs, and people open up to each faster and more deeply.