Letters to the Editor
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A level of detail...
"We met online."
Or:
"So I'm really bored, right? My ex had just left after a drawn-out failure of the relationship, and I wanted to go out and have some fun. So I sign up with this service, OkCupid, which has the primary benefit of being free. I put up my picture and a snarky profile because, well, anybody who wants to go out with me should be forewarned, right? So one day I log in and amid the creeps trying to explain how they're only *technically* married, I've got this message that just says, 'Thank you for not being crazy.'"
(We celebrated the second anniversary of our first date at the beginning of March and are engaged to be married.)
The trouble with meeting online is that it lacks a human interaction component. "We met on the computer" is as functionally useless as "we met in Cleveland". Okay, yes, you met in Cleveland. But *how*? What happened? What drew you together? That's what people want to know when they ask. They're not asking what particular medium you used to communicate, they want to know something like how his profile included a poem that you've always loved, how he sent you a goofy picture to cheer you up when you said you were having a bad day, how you talked on the phone for six hours the very first time you spoke to him and you had trouble hanging up.
Computers lack drama, but people don't. Take the computer out of the picture. It was a tool. You wouldn't tell someone that you met over the telephone if your first contact with him was when he called you--you'd mention how your best friend gave him your number because she thought you'd be perfect together because you both love little yappy dogs or collecting antiques. The internet isn't the story any more than the telephone is.