Online Dating

Online dating is becoming more and more prominent in todays world. Whether it’s for serious relationships, meeting new people, or just hanging out there are different online dating resources that can be used. As we talked about in our class a little bit since the early 2000s online dating has been being used more and more. For example how in 2002 there was a study that showed 50% of online relationships would lead to face-to-face relationships and being just as stable. In 2013 another studied showed that 1/3 of marriages started online and when meeting online you are more likely to get married than when meeting face-to-face.

In an article I read in the Washington Post, it asks the question if online dating really works and then talks about different concepts that are involved with online dating and different positives and negatives along with some interesting statistics that go along with it.  

Looking at the online dating scene from a college students perspective may seem a little different from what people in there late 20s-30s may see as online dating. The differences come down to what we are looking to gain from the online dating. College students may be looking for short term relationships, physical relationships, or just to find people to go out with. Older adults may be looking for more serious relationships with intentions of getting married, starting a family, starting a life together. Obviously everyone was different so there are college aged people who may be looking for something more serious and also older adults who are looking for something less serious.

Some things that the article talked about that were a little different from the statistics we saw in class about how online dating leads to committed stable relationships there are statistics that show otherwise. The differences, the statistics above are more general and based off of all users and probably based off more serious online dating websites. Statistics in the Washington Post article show that for college students who use online dating sites have fewer committed relationships and lead more towards using the online sites for a hook up culture. In 2010 a study showed that more people are using online sites to meet then meeting at schools, bars, or parties.