According to U.S. Census figures published by Match.com, 44 percent of adults in the U.S. are single. That means that more than 100 million people are unattached. And 40 million Americans use online dating services. You don’t have to be a math whiz to know that this means about 40 percent of U.S. singles can claim to use online dating. That’s a lot of people.

I signed up for JDate in 2001. This does not make me cool. This makes me an early adopter of online dating. My young, naïve attitude was, “It seems like fun. Why not?” I remember that my parents, of course, almost fell on the floor, predicting I was going to meet a psycho killer or, worse, someone who wasn’t worthy of my affection! Luckily for everyone, the worst that happened was meeting more than a few awkward men, some of whom provided such great stories that I’m still writing about them today.

Online dating, believe it or not, has been around for a lot longer than you may think. JDate, which caters to meeting someone of the Jewish faith, opened its cyber doors in 1997. The concept for Match.com was hatched in 1993, and the site launched in 1995 — 20 years ago. Happy birthday to you, Match.com! What can we get you? Oh, wait, your parent company, IAC, is having an IPO for The Match Group. I think you’re doing A-OK.

What’s happened in the last 20 years? I think most of us know this (since even my mom now knows what Tinder is), but online dating use has gone through the roof. It’s more than a $2 billion industry, and there’s seemingly no end point to the growth. Pew Research Center published a study in April showing that when Match.com launched, only 14 percent of adults in the U.S. even used the Internet! That seems crazy when you think about it. (I remember when I first got AOL. It was quite a big day in the Ettin household!) Today, 90 percent of adults use the Internet, and of those, one out of every five adults ages 25 to 34 years old has used online dating. It’s also increasingly popular with older singles. In fact, 25 percent of my client base is over 50.

And dating apps? That’s another story. When I started my business just four years ago, there was no such thing as a dating app. People were using the sites that most of us have heard of — JDate, Match.com, OurTime, eHarmony, etc. — but there was no Tinder, Hinge, Grindr, Coffee Meets Bagel, JSwipe, Happn, The League. Shall I go on? It’s rare now to find someone single who hasn’t at least tried online dating, whether a site or an app.

What’s my point? Is it to subscribe to an online dating site if you’re not ready to date? No, sir. Is it to online date for the rest of eternity? Not even close. What I am recommending is to use online dating as an instrument that you have at your disposal to find a date. If you were looking for a new job, then I’d tell you to go to a job fair. If you’re looking to find a date, then you might as well go where the single people are, and that’s online. In the process, though, please do remind yourself that people are people, not just profiles on a page, and they deserve a chance.

Online dating can become addicting if you let it. There are other people who send emails or texts day in and day out trying to see just how many dates they can line up. They know that if Wednesday’s date doesn’t work out, then Thursday’s is right around the corner. If you’re looking for something serious, simply use online dating as a tool to find the best mate for you, without getting a case of “Grass is Greener Syndrome.”

If you’re one of the people still holding out hope that you’ll meet someone at the bus stop or in line at Whole Foods, I’m not telling you to lose that hope. What I am telling you, though, is to try an online dating site, too. Everyone’s doing it. And you have a better chance of winning the prize if you play the game, and in this case, I’m talking about the online dating game.