"Surveys show that in the online dating world, women are afraid of meeting a serial killer. Men are afraid of meeting someone fat."
That's a quote from When Strangers Click: Five Stories from The Internet, a new non-fiction film premiering on HBO on Valentine's Day.
Despite the gender-based disproportion (after all, one dread entails mortal danger, the other merely a matter of taste), both types of trepidation make it clear that in the ever-enlarging tapestry of online relationship, the warp and woof are desire and fear.