Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Online Dating


Shakita Jarrett
Blog 2

Online dating is the practice of searching for romantic partners on a designated internet website. This topic has emerged in the past decade with individuals having trouble finding that true love and search online because going to social gatherings, blind dates, mutual friends and etc. have been unsuccessful. Also, the development of popular dating websites such as Match.com and eHarmony proven to assist individuals with finding their everlasting love. A good percentage of happily married couples met online compared to couples that met face to face and based on the statistics of how effective online dating is, I wonder will that influence the way people seek love and do away with the traditional meeting them at work, school, mutual friends or events. There are many benefits to online dating such, for instance individuals are more self-disclosing since that face to face interaction is invisible which allow people to break from their comfort zone and not as nervous. In the article “5 reasons why I’m so glad I tried online dating” the author provided five gratifications of how online dating has helped. One of the five reasons included that online there is a variety of people to meet compared to real life which allows one to reject individuals without feeling bad and looking at options. Also, you are not just meeting people that live in your community or state, individuals can be from outside the state one lives or another country. For example, the documentary we watched called “When Strangers Click” one of the successful love stories ranged to another country. The girl Kim traveled to Prague to meet her romantic partner Dennis whom she later married and now they have a beautiful family together. This story illustrates that online dating can long distance relationships are also effective. Moreover, I have relatives that met online as well and are happily married and my older brother is on an online dating website as well and stated that he likes it and it’s something different. I concur with the hype regarding online dating and will recommend it. However, there are some negatives about online dating as well including people misleading others with inauthenticity and online predators. There are levels of self-management exhibited on online dating sites because online dating is a strategic endeavor because we control what we put on social networks to manage our identity.  For instance, people may project themselves as this good person to protect their image and proliferate profile interests and others may not have a profile picture enabling anonymity because their identity is unknown. This self-presentation of online daters may assist with an insecurity of the individual but at the same time build that bond with individuals they are serious with; in the documentary Dave concealed that he was below average height for a man in his profile due to shame and think women will not give him a chance but communicated with people regularly even though he has that secret that could possibly deter his potential future partner. As mentioned above, I agree that online is good but I do not think I can partake in online dating because I feel there’s trust that has to be built in a relationship and communication via technology will not gain someone that trust. I need to see their reactions and nonverbal cues that occur during face to face interaction for that genuineness. 



 

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