Један од циљева интернета јесте занемаривање и превазилажење различитих, у првом реду географских препрека у комуникацији и повезивању људи широм света. Могућности које нам пружа ова врста комуникације има безброј и могу се сагледати са више аспеката. Овом приликом се указује на улогу интернет комуникације (чет и мејл) у сфери интерперсоналних веза и односа. Реч је о, мање или више, свима нама познатом феномену упознавања и остваривање веза и односа путем интернета. У раду се анализирају различити интернет сајтови, са намером да се сагледа улога ова врсте комуникације у успостављању предбрачних и брачних веза и односа. Whether we like it or not, personal computers and internet have become an integral part of our daily lives. Well aware of the possibilities offered by internet, I researched into phenomena known as chat. To be more precise, I was interested in ways of communication between individuals in virtual world, its content and perspectives in forming premarital and marital relationships. The research comprised active participation in cyber space and acquiring knowledge of conception and contents of internet sites with modules for chat. There are many such sites, foreign and local, that could fulfill everybody‘s desires and wishes. Communication in virtual reality allows surfing a number of sites. A possibility of a number of choices is one of the primarily reasons of why people, wanting to find a potential partner for marriage or relationship, use internet and chat. Internet is visited from various reasons: some people are just curios and want „to try something new―, some are bored: „I‘m on a brake and bored― and some are just plain lonely. Underline all these is the common intention- to meet a potential partner. In spite of this, the visitors who experience internet as a marriage matchmaker are minority. This is only partially due to the virtual nature of the possible relationships and disbelief in such kind of relationship forming, and is more due to the fact that most visitors just want to have fun and adventures. I assume this to represent one of the reasons influencing the numerical difference between the chat visitors and entered marriages via internet. In the story of virtual sites and online love affairs, the meeting in a real, off-line world is decisive. Virtual friendships and love affairs happy endings do not depend of contents and structure of a particular site, but on a meeting outside cyber space. Even so the given small number of the online relationships with happy ending, the role and importance of internet as virtual matchmaker stands. Internet is a mediator in establishing relationships regardless of their quality and persistence. Namely, internet is a particular online agency whose services are provided in one reality, within its borders. In spite of the fact that cyber space represents a reality per se, between it and the world we live in, there is a certain connection. It is probably that this parallelism and knotting that confuses certain individuals. I assume that confusion arises because we mark cyber space a priori as something imaginative and in divergence with the real of-line world, never doubting the actual reality of the world we live in. This virtual reality is as much an illusion as this one where we actually live, depending on how much we want it to be. The expansion and technical superior of internet communication and similar services point to an existence of particular long lasting cultural phenomena, and point to certain problems that stay marginalized because of our inclination to overemphasize modern technologies. Considering all, I suggest that scientific discourse should be directed into realization of contraindications implied by internet communication. Една от целите на Интернет е обезсмислянето и преодоляването на различните, на първо място географски, препятствия в комуникацията и връзките между хората по целия свят. Възможностите, които ни предлага този вид комуникация, са безбройни и могат да бъдат погледнати от различни аспекти. Този път се фокусираме върху един от вариантите на този вид комуникация – чатенето (на англ. chat). Става дума за повече или по-малко познатия на всички ни феномен на запознаване и осъществяване на връзки и отношения чрез Интернет. Накратко казано, в настоящата работа ще бъдат анализирани разнородни социални фактори и програмите за чатене, с намерението да бъдат видяни както възможностите, които предлага, така и последиците, които има този вид комуникация за установяване на предбачни и брачни връзки и отношения. Зборник радова Етнографског института САНУ 22 / Collection of Papers of the Institute of Ethnography SASA 22