You’re not dating yet, but you are doing what you might call ‘pre-dating’, which is as much a part of courtship these days as exchanging phone numbers.

So what is ‘pre-dating’? well methodology varies – some favor LinkedIn; others Twitter or blogs – but according to a new Match.com survey a good 48 percent of women research a someone on Facebook before the first date. Clicking through someone’s public photos is kind of like passing them in the hall at high school. You see her and get a sense of her life without actually having to put yourself out there.

But is the time you spend with someone’s online persona messing with what might develop in real life relationship? Do you ever become a little too obsessed? Its time to find out…