Arguably, dating sites became necessary as people seemingly lost the interpersonal skills to interact. That's not to say there hasn't always been those people who can't or just won't interact, but it was always somewhat expected that those people could benefit from therapy. Online dating started almost as a novelty, not as a serious means of matching compatible people. Then the likes of match.com and eharmony started to push their services as a way of helping these "lost" single people find the perfect match without having to directly interact, and the perception became that this was an acceptable alternate to a face-to-face interaction. However, none of these sites have ever addressed the pitfalls of being unable to read body language and vocal inflection when in close proximity.